Fantasuchikku Senshi DEJIRANGER
by Idiot Villager
Summary: Hey, you got Power Rangers in my Digimon! Chapter Three: With things going rapidly going downhill on the Ranger's day, can they stand up to Arukenimon? Or will they be crushed under the foot of the MoTD?
1. Episode One: Brave Heroes of Hope!

FANTASUCHIKKU Senshi DejiRanger Episode One: Brave heroes of hope?! A careless lot will not help anyone!

(Disclaimer: Dekaranger and Abaranger, as well as other Sentai series, are property of Toei, along with anyone else I may have forgotten. Digimon is a product of Toei animation, Bandai and Disney/Saban. I do not claim any ownership to anything, except some concepts used in the story itself. This fanfic has been edited, to your approval, by Neo Arkadia. Check out his stuff, especially "Hello". And I apologize in advance, of anyone perceives what happens to Izumi as bashing or anything bad like that; I'm quite fond of her, actually, and I promise that her role with greatly improve by the end! Please, do not kill me, for something that I perceive as happening to her a lot in the series!)

_Digital Police Headquarters; the lead in human and Digimon connections, and has been this way for as long as most anyone could remember. Here, it was where tamers could become Rangers- people devoted to the protection of Earth and the Digital World. This place held a lot of power in the world of today, as this police was where you turned not when your purse was stolen, but when a large ATM-Wig-Mushroom combination monster decided to go on a rampage. While that may not seem all too common to some people, in __Tokyo__ it's a daily thing. _

_            Yes, the Digital Police had a to be proud of, ever since it's humble beginnings in 1999; the Digital police, who were sworn to defend the world; Thousands of DejiZords under its beck and call; And quite a few generous donations, from several multi-billion dollars. Pretty soon, it would have another jewel to add to its crown of achievements: the specialty DejiRanger group, the elites in other words. It was to be the best of the best, compromised of five candidates to fight against… Against… Against something that was not covered in the notes. _

            Ryo sighed, as he looked over the packet again, first skimming over it before reading more in depth. No… That's not right. Even with all of the ego-stroking that the superiors seemed to put into the primary information, they never said why the DejiRanger group was necessary, or even anything basic, like where they'd be stationed in Tokyo and what they'd defend. Was this all just some sort of publicity stunt or some hoax? If so, Ryo knew he would need to kill something or someone in the executive offices; he did not drop out of retirement and Tokyo U, just to play mentor to some ornamental task-force.

            The brunette tossed the note aside, not caring about the mess he just made. Soon, the assistant from those bureaucrats in the executive offices would come down… Whoever that was could clean up the mess… Well, that's what Ryo was thinking now, but he would end up picking up the mess himself, so that he'd give the assistant less to worry about; as mad as he was now, the former Ranger still happened to be a pretty nice guy.

            As he stared at the door, finally she came in. She being a red-haired girl, about his age, bound to a wheelchair. He looked surprised for a moment, before feeling kind of like an ass about his earlier thoughts, and bowed deeply to her. "Pardon me, Miss, I'll just pick this up, you don't have to worry…"

            "About the mess, you mean?" The girl nodded to the assorted notes and contracts sprawled out on the conference table. "No need to apologize… My brother makes a worse mess, and he usually has me get it. Are you Mr. Akiyama?" He nodded, still in the bow. "… You can get up you know. You're the superior."

            "Well, you don't need to call me Mr. Akiyama, miss… I may be retired, but it doesn't mean I'm an old man. I'm only nineteen, you know." He coughed a bit nervously, while thinking about how idiotic he was acting. Yeah, a world-renown Ranger, one of the strongest of his time, and the Tamer of the fiendish Milleniumon… And he could barely talk to most people without acting like a goof. "Please call me Ryo. But let's get to business… You've got the files of the Ranger candidates that will be considered for DejiRanger, correct?"

            "Yes." She held a small bundle of files, each one color-coded for easier reference. Then again, most Ranger information came in easy to manage color-coding… Just find the group you're looking for, and match the Ranger you want with their theme color. Still, it appeared as if the young woman either only took a small amount of files with her, or had lost a few on the way, as she placed them on the table; all five of them.

            "… This is it?" Ryo asked, indignantly. "This can't be everything…"

            "What do you mean 'this can't be everything'? This is all I got, when I asked for the candidates files." The red-haired girl answered, the tone of her voice sounding rather peeved at what he suggested, that she made a mistake on what was correct. "That's how many Rangers reached the qualifications on making the elite team."

            "You mean to tell me that, out of five thousand or even more Rangers… We can count all of the candidates we received on one hand?" The red-haired girl nodded. "You sure that's all the files?"

            "Positive." She muttered, frustrated. "There isn't anyone else who reaches the requirements of the DejiRanger code. These five are all that we're going to deal with." The group was meant to be five people, or at least according to all of the reports Ryo poured over, in the past few hours. In other words, he really didn't have a choice on who'd make the cut; everyone possible already did.

            Resisting the urge to bang his head on the table, he took the top file on the desk. The file already showcased a leader Ranger- Red- and came with an "urgent" stamp on the top of it. A small label on the side had the name written in English, along with the sub-division where it came from. "New York City? They're sending us a Ranger?"  
            "Well, from what I've read, the boy originally came from Japan. The whole group… I think it was the ArmoRanger… They were stationed in Japan, since the NYC center came under siege last year, from the whole Wendimon and Diablomon fiascos. Motamiya… Daisuke, I think it was."

            "Oh?" As he read through the notes on the one known as 'ArmoRed', "He certainly seems strong enough to be part of DejiRanger. Powerful weapons, a power outside of combat, a partner with both a decent Digimon form and a powerful DejiZord…"

            "Certainly so; in fact, from all I've read on the boy, there's only one problem." Ryo looked at her, as she flipped the file to a certain page. Had Ryo been drinking anything, he would've surely spat it out across the table. The page she had turned to gave a list of prices, ranging in wide amounts from two thousand yen to somewhere above ten million. The list only had a simple header on the top; TOTAL PROPERTY DAMAGE.

            "Over seventy million yen's worth of property damage? By one person!? Surely you mean this is for the whole team, I mean how can one person be responsible for all this?!"

--

            "ARMORANGER POLICE!" ArmoRed shouted, as he ran and held out an ornate-looking badge. "PLEASE SIR, COME TO A COMPLETE STOP, AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE GROUND!"

            The creature, a rogue Devimon, looked back at the boy as he kept on running, holding one arm close to his body. The dark-type monster turned back, holding out an arm in attack position. "Do you think you scare me, Ranger? You're kind is the least of my worries! Death claw!"

            His claw elongated and enlarged a bit, the tips of his pointed fingers becoming sharp to the point of razors. The claw went flying to the teen in the red spandex, and destroying a mailbox in the process of rushing to him. Instinctively, ArmoRed bounced up, letting the claw fly harmlessly (unless you count the three cars he just totaled) underneath him. Landing on the extended arm, he ran up to the Devimon, and kicked him right in the face.

            Devimon yowled in pain, his mouth now bloodied from the row of broken and jagged teeth that remained. The demon smacked the boy away, extremely hard, with his free hand, sending ArmoRed flying. ArmoRed flew right into a parked bus, breaking a couple of windows in the process of a jagged landing. In the bus, he slammed into a group of tourists, cushioning the blow for himself.

            Even though they were unhurt, the tourists were all very surprise. Some of the people, including one little girl in particular, found all of this very exciting. The little girl found this twice as much so, since she didn't know they had Rangers in New York. "Reddo Rangaa!"

            "Ouch…" He didn't notice the small child pointing to him, and shouting his name, or at least "Reddo Rangaa". "Sorry for all of the trouble everyone," he shouted, "Please, return to your seats, and enjoy your tour!" With that, the boy in red spandex got up once again, before dashing out of the bus. "And sorry about the windows, but at least some of you on the left can enjoy a nice cool breeze!"

            The Devimon stood on the ruins of one car, waiting for the Ranger, while holding his misbegotten relic close. "Had enough, boy? Or do you want more punishment?" The demonic creature smiled grimly, which didn't have quite the effect he was going for, due to the shattered teeth in his mouth.

            "Oh, I'm just getting started with you…" ArmoRed let his arms drop to the sides, close to the two holsters on his waist. "But, unfortunately, this is just your end." With that, the teen in red spandex grabbed the two guns, and proceeded to shoot at everything and everyone with reckless abandon. Street signs, cars, windows, store fronts- all shot up to hell. Most people duck out of the way of the blast, recognizing ArmoRed's attack. New York may be a large place, but when there's news of a "Bullet-Crazy Maniac in Long Red Spandex", you tend to listen. And you remember that.

            Devimon was totally ripped up from the attack. The demon-like monster yowled, the last noise he made on this plain, as he deleted from the multiple shots. Even after he died, Daisuke still shot at a mailbox behind him for a few seconds, converting the damned thing to Swiss cheese or some sort of "modern art gone bad". It wasn't that he wanted to shoot the mailbox but, when the guns go off, he really had little control on where the shots would go. At least no one was shot this time.

            In the tourist bus, everyone had ducked again, at the sounds of the shooting. The little girl peeked up from her seat, on her mother's lap, before looking out the window, whimpering. "Kowaii…" She said. The Rangers in New York were very scary.

            On the ground, there laid a purse with two or three good-sized holes in it. De-transforming as he did so, Daisuke walked over to the bag and picked it up, blowing away the smoke and dust from it as he did so. The teenage boy, with wild red-brown hair held back with goggles, walked back to a street corner a block away, whistling as he did so.

            "Here you go, ma'am!" He handed the bag back to the old lady standing on the corner, before glaring at four other teens. "And I appreciate you're help guys… Especially you, Ken."

            "Daisuke… You know we're not supposed to go to such…" He looked at the purse, ridden with bullet holes, as the old lady gawked at it. "… Extremes, for something this minor…"

            "Minor?" Daisuke scoffed. "Minor? What, how is the theft of an old lady's purse considered anything 'minor'. Ken, you usually help out the elderly much more than me; what makes this time different?"

            "Why does it smell like gun-powder?" The old lady, a frail little thing in her nineties, asked. "Did you shoot the purse, young man?"

            "Well, ma'am, I didn't mean to really shoot it… At least it's no longer in the hands of evil! And, you can patch up the holes with fabric, and make it look at cool and sort of punk-ish!"

            Takeru, ignoring the old lady's commentary, snapped at Daisuke. "Look, mister 'Property Damage', we're not supposed to transform unless lives are at stake! You don't go and destroy half a city block," With that, the blonde teen directed his hand to all of the wanton destruction ArmoRed left behind. "…Over petty theft. Once the chief finds out about this, he'll…"

            "He'll what? He can't fire a ranger, otherwise he'd have to take V-Mon away, and that's never happened before!" Or, at least, it hasn't happened before to Daisuke's knowledge. But they wouldn't take away someone's Zord, their partner Digimon… Would they? No, of course not!

            A cell-phone went off. Immediately, Miyako answered the phone, "Hello, ArmoRanger! This is ArmoGreen speaking, what is the… Oh." The girl's eyes bugged out a little at something. "OH." She looked over to Daisuke, before turning to the side. "I'll tell him so. And it's that bad." A loud noise came over the phone, sounding a little like a yell. She yipped, as it just went off in her ear. "Okay, I see… Wow, that's a new record… it's really close to twenty-five thousand dollars? In one hit alone?"

            Daisuke winced at that one. The call had to be it; it was possible to fire a Ranger, and he was about to be canned… He was so dead… "V-Mon…" 

--

            The brunette looked at the folder, an array of rather morbid thoughts coming to his mind, including the repeated thought of "Has this guy ever killed a person? He must've, at one point or another…" He grimaced, before just placing the folder to the side, holding it like it was a used condom. "Is there anything as…? What would be a good word… Disturbing, with this one?" Ryo asked, as he picked up the next file, which had a blue dark to the point of being nearly black.

            "Kimura Kouichi. No, he's not nearly as reckless as Motamiya… Well, actually, there's something rather troubling in his files."

            Ryo didn't see anything too bad, at first. A ranger mode-change, unique to himself and the ability to use dual swords… Alright, the fact his partner was, quite literally, the Spirit of Corrupted Darkness can be considered 'disturbing'. But he's probably very close with his partner, or could manage the dangerous nature of his partner. Then, he came across the hospital records.

            "An overdose of Celexa? You mean he's tried to kill himself before?"

            Rei became quiet, for a moment. "It's not sure if he even meant to over-dose on the medication. Team members say he did so intentionally, but he's claiming that he didn't even know he was given it. Perhaps he was so out of it that he didn't realize what he was doing."

            "Huh…" That really didn't seem possible… Still, there was the problem that he was severely depressed, as most of the records went to show. Repeated visits to psychiatrists… At least five different types of medications over the past four years… And a previous suicide attempt. If nothing else, the boy may end up having an emotional collapse, at least. He didn't even want to think what the worst that could happen was…

--

            Heavy rains poured down the tops of buildings, as the four Rangers speeded to action, atop roaring motorcycles. The four Rangers of Shadows- ShadRanger, as they were called- road to the scene of a fight, the colors of their suits blending in with the darkness. They were ShadRed, ShadGreen, ShadPurple, and ShadBlue, even if their colors could be more accurately described as crimson, forest green, dark purple, and navy.

            In the foreground of all the chaos, there stood what the rangers were racing to fight; an over-grown beast, with two faces on it. This beast, with wings used rarely for flight, and fangs in both sets of mouths, was the terrible King of Vampires known as VenomVamdemon. He growled, the mouth on his head foaming at the lips, as he watched the cycles speed up to the rescue, before swinging a giant clawed hand towards the group. Most of the cycles- red, green and purple- went flying, sending the three Rangers on each sprawling onto the ground.

            The fourth cyclist, ShadBlue, looked to his side at his fallen comrades, before turning his eyes to VenomVamdemon. The devil stared back, realizing that one ranger still continued onward to him, and said ranger was the one he'd been warned about. Roaring, he slammed his arm into the ground, absolutely destroying the motorcycle with his hands. At first, he was sure he'd kill the ranger, and lifted, expecting to see a usual pool of read, mixed in with the crushed pavement and burning bike. However, there was something missing; there was no body. All that was there was a motorcycle with a burning mess in there.

            ShadBlue landed on the ground close by, thankful for knowing to jump in time. Damnit. At least he wouldn't have too much trouble… At least, not for long, as he'd hoped.

            VenomVamdemon noticed the still blue figure, as it stood on the pavement for a good portion of time. Not even giving it a second, he slammed into attack stance, while the second mouth of the giant beast, one close to his waist, screamed "Chaos FLAME!"

            Fires, hotter than hell itself, poured from the Demi-God's mouth, searing everything in the area really quickly. Noticing the blast as it came, ShadBlue rolled out of the way, still managing to earn some heavy burns on his right arm and leg, before falling to the ground. He coughed harshly, standing up as fast as he could to avoid another such attack.

            "Ouch." The ranger looked to his arm, the skin underneath now visible from the spandex being both burned away and torn in the fall he had, to avoid the blast. It would definitely need massive medical care, and it would hurt for another few days. If one could see the face of the ranger underneath, however, they would fine his expression wasn't of pain or even "Damn it!", but a curiously calm and detached one. "Well, I was the careless one, wasn't I?" The tone of voice became chillingly calm, a monotonous and slightly bemused tone for someone who should be in large amounts of pain.

            VenomVamdemon growled, stepping back from the blue-suited teen. Fire started to swarm its lower mouth again, the eyes on both sets of faces opening wide. The arms of the beast, large and fur-coated, went to shield its chest, the claws pointing outwards to ShadBlue and the still burning earth. It wasn't the flames upon the ground that worried him; the fear came from something much more sinister, a force of darkness even greater than himself.

            ShadBlue took a step forward, the suit slightly glowing with blue energy. "Of course, it's no real concern to me; after all, it's not my fault for this injury. It's yours." The ranger looked up, his visor no longer looking expressionless, but with rage and wickedness growing in the grey visor. "And I really hate it when someone else hurts me."

            Instinctively, VenomVamdemon's second mouth poured forth the flames again, moving so rapidly that he didn't have time to shout the attack name. Both arms flailed at the ground, destroying the pavement, dirt, and concrete that cemented the streets. In one fleeting moment, VenomVamdemon felt sure he'd killed the boy, the one they called "Duskmon's Child".

            He felt sure until he felt a first stinging, then sharp and hard pain in his right arm. On the arm, being held up by a sword in one hand, ShadBlue hung on his arm like a parasite. Fear becoming a force of insanity, VenomVamdemon started to claw at that arm, tearing off bits of his own skin and fur with each strike. All the swinging of the hand did, for ShadBlue, however, was give him the boost he needed. With each swing, he'd climb up a little higher on the arm, using the second arms momentum to slide him up. All VenomVamdemon's franticness did only hurt his goal, and helped the blue ranger's.

            ShadBlue, in one last movement, suddenly swung of the arm, using a second sword to jam onto the monster's arm for a millisecond. In that moment, he launched from the swinging arm to the monsters body, and slammed bother swords into it repeatedly, jamming the chest of the monster deeper and with more passion than any other attack the VenomVamdemon knew a Digimon to be capable of. No, this couldn't be the work of a mere Digimon; this whole creature was far more wretched than any monster of his world, even himself, could ever hope to be. This… This child, if one could call ShadBlue as such, didn't belong to Earth or the Digital World, but the deepest depths of the Dark Ocean, Hell as the humans would call it.

            The beast took both claws, far from thinking right, as he did as so, and pointed them to his own chest. He needed to destroy this ranger of darkness more than anything else, and he intended on doing so by any means necessary. VenomVamdemon jammed both claws into his chest.

            ShadBlue merely let go of the swords seconds before he knew what VenomVamdemon tried to do. He watched, as he fell back to the ground, as VenomVamdemon impaled himself. "Only I am allowed to bring pain to myself. You, however, are nothing more than a fluke. And now, you're dead."

            The rest of the rangers had not even thought of calling into base, to send for their Zords and ShadBlue's; there was no need to. All that would've done, to send for them, was make ShadBlue angry. ShadRed and ShadGreen watched, while the smaller ShadPurple hiding behind the taller rangers, as ShadBlue flipped back to Earth. Within moments, ShadBlue collapsed to the ground, whimpering at the pain in both his arm and his leg. As he rubbed the leg, the two swords clattered to the ground, ringing off the pavement. He looked around, confused for a moment, before noticing the other three rangers. "Are you guys alright? Did any of you get hurt in the-"

            "Get back!" ShadRed shouted, as he stood in front of the other two Rangers, holding out his arms as if it would prevent the blue ranger from seeing either of them. "Don't even come close, you murderous freak!"

            "What?" ShadBlue said, his voice tinted with worry and confusion, "What on earth hap-"

             "Stay back!" ShadRed screamed again, taking out his own swords and holding them out in front of him. His arms and legs shook, while his joints felt like they locked up, preventing him from running. Behind him, ShadPurple's whimpers and ShadGreen's attempts to calm the younger ranger, despite sounding like she was crying herself, were very audible. "There was no need to go that far… We could've gotten out the Zords and merely deleted him! But you had to make him suffer, didn't you?! You just live to bring fear to others!"

            ShadBlue's confusion ended very quickly, once he realized what ShadRed meant and why they acted that way. It happened again. He lost it… He lost control and he just went and ki- … And he was the monster's mur- And the monster was… He couldn't bring himself to think it. ShadBlue hung his head, his mouth becoming dry. "Guys…" At least they'd never see him again, in less than a day. He'd be going away very soon… Very far away from them, and the city, and everything. He'd be going to Tokyo soon, and no one in this city would ever have to see him again.

            At least the city and the Shadow Rangers would feel safe.

--

            "Mr. Ryo?" The redheaded girl asked, snapping Ryo from his thoughts. I must've started day-dreaming again, he thought, as he looked up from the folder's various contents and comments penned in from various doctors of varying fields. The girl smiled a little, as she took the folder from him and moved it on top of the red file. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Ryo-san. Sorry I couldn't leave you to read Kimura's file for the rest of the day, but there's still three other rangers you need to check out…"

            Ryo looked to the other three files, while a various amount of dark and ideas that, although interesting for b-movies, just made his blood ran cold as he thought of what else he had to look forward to. "Miss… Hey, I never did catch your name did I?"

            "Saiba Rei. You may call me whatever you wish however." The girl bowed in her seat, before handing a green folder, with odd Chinese characters along the side where the name should be. "And you prefer this folder. This one's a bit milder, compared to the other two, and I think you could relate to him."

            Ryo glanced within the contents, checking out the name in its Japanese written format quickly. "Jianliang Lee… What a minute…" With that, the brunette took out the planning sheets and, running a quick scan of the advisors and members of the council, found a similar such name. "The same Lee as in… I don't know… Lee, Janryu?"

            "It says so on page three." Rei replied, before quickly adding "But Lee-san isn't why Jenrya was even considered. Even if he's the chief's son, there's a better reason to him being a member of the new team than just pure nepotism." She didn't sound quite convinced herself, but most of the people in the staffroom swore on the fact that the team was selected before anyone even knew their names. Of course, the same people have also swore to her, in the past, that Olestra was a safe and delicious oil for potato chips, so she really didn't have much to go on. "He's actually quite strong, and even has a black-belt in Tai Chi or something like that… Chances are he could take care of himself, at least."

            "Huh." Ryo sounded as if Rei just told him the boy was a Cambodian street whore, and enjoyed dismembering small animals for fun. After working with quite a few members who were blood relatives of generals, officials, and even a senator's daughter, Ryo really didn't have a good impression on such people. The brunette turned the page, looking at "Jianliang's" previous records in the Digital Police. At least he understood now, as he checked out the history Jen had in the Rangers, why Rei thought he could relate to him.

            According to the records, Jianliang had joined the Rangers at the age of ten. Since then, he'd been transferred to different teams six times. The latest team, the HakkuRanger, seemed to be the best choice however. He'd been there for most of five years. Everywhere else only lasted a month each.

--

            Buildings in the area still smoked and burned, while firemen in the area worked to put out the flames. People- both rescue workers and paparazzi- worked down the streets, helping the injured, moving the dead, and interviewing everyone else. In one crater, not a particularly far distance from where the monster finally died, an odd sort of goop surrounded the vicinity, as men in hazmat suits struggled to clear every last bit. Only this remained of the last known D-Reaper strand, known to the people as Cable Reaper.

            A short distance away, one could see three figures on the top of a building. If someone was looking for them, it would not be a hard task to find them. Even in the late evening, it didn't take much effort to point out three people in brightly colored, somewhat shiny spandex suits. Silence was the extent of conversation for most of the hour between the three figures, as they looked over the same spot as the battle just happened, the green figure pacing on the ledge, while the blue one just looked to the previous battleground, everyone once in a while glancing over to Green.

            The red just kept on looking straight ahead, or at least had his head facing that one. He usually acted a lot more energetic than this, the boy in green spandex thought, as he glanced over to Red. Usually, the boy talked constantly after a battle, going over to the Zords and making sure they were alright, along with complaining to him and Blue that 'I thought we really were going to die this time!'.

            Then again, none of the Zords were here. MegaloGrowZord, TaoZord, RapiZord… They were off in base, in the technician's department. Right after the battle, the commander recalled all of the Zords, not even given them time to clean off the bits of D-Reaper. Right now, they were most likely being re-wired, having all of the previous connections changed. Of course they knew this was going to happen though; after the defeat of the D-Reaper, the HakkuRanger had no purpose in Okinawa.

            "… I really didn't have a choice on this." HakkuGreen tried again, stopping his constant pacing as he did so. "Really, this isn't my decision to make this time…"

            "Oh?" The voice of HakkuBlue had a hissing, bitter tone, a tone she never used for him in the past five years. "And what did you say to the other teams in the past? Or did you just want to get close enough to leave an impression, Lee?"

            "Do you really think I left them just to piss them off, or something petty like that?" He really didn't want to be confrontational, especially when trying to apologize, but... She should've known why he left them, by no. "Hell, there's nothing I want to do than stay in Okinawa, or at least get transferred to the same place as you two. But, for some odd reason, I just can't!"

            "Please…" HakkuRed said, his voice quiet and hoarse-sounding from crying, "Please stop fighting…" Neither listened to him, as HakkuBlue got up from where she has been sitting.

            "Like hell, you don't have any control! What made you decide to leave anyway? Aren't we good enough for you anymore? Or would you rather go off to Tokyo, so you could be hero-worship by rookies!?" HakkuGreen winced, as her tirade continued. "And you don't even have the balls to tell us you were leaving either! You couldn't even speak up and say 'I'm out of here', instead you just had to let us find out from that letter!"

            "I never said anything because that letter was when I found out too!" HakkuGreen shouted. His fists clenched and unclenched, while he struggled to keep from slapping or punching the girl in blue spandex. "It's not my fault I was chosen for this… DejiRanger thing, but I'm sick of you assuming that I want to abandon you two!"

            "WILL YOU BOTH JUST SHUT UP?!" The teen in red spandex stood up suddenly, screaming as loud as he could at the two. Both HakkuGreen and Blue looked to him, silencing immediately. He sobbed, "Look, can we all just stop fighting?"

            "Takato…" This was what he was doing to them. HakkuGreen was killing one of his best friends with grief, and completely destroying another's trust, a trust that took four years to develop... And he didn't even have any control on what he was doing. The green ranger really wished he could just make this all end; that the Digital Police council would just reply with "Just kidding, happy April Fools Day", and it would just turn out to be some sick joke or something.

            "Goggle-head…" The girl in blue sounded equally low. Her helmet lowered, as her body lost the tension it had merely seconds ago. "Look, I'm sorry…"

            HakkuRed sniffled a little, before he said "Why are you apologizing to me? It's Jen who you were screaming at…" Then, he turned to HakkuGreen. "And I don't know why this is happening… Or if you want to leave or not, or what's going to happen to me and Ruki, but can we at least act like friends for the next few hours?"

            HakkuGreen nodded, as his throat and mouth began feeling extremely dry. He wanted to go over and pat HakkuRed's back, or hug him or something, but he felt frozen in place. All he could do now was nod, while feeling nauseous. HakkuBlue, however, had much more initiative; she wrapped her arms around HakkuRed's neck, and walked into a hug. "I'll try…"He never felt more alone with the two of them as he did now.

            The group became silent again, for a very long time, as they resumed watching the hazmat team continue cleaning the Jell-O-esque substance from the streets, while the last of the fires on the buildings were put out. None of them noticed the white-haired woman in red, as she stood by the pile, watching the men clean the rest of the mess. "Jen…" HakkuRed said, "Do you know if it hurts a Digi- Sorry… Does it hurt a Zord to have its systems reconnected, so it can connect to a new Zord system?"

            "It shouldn't hurt. At least, Terriermon says it doesn't hurt, and I doubt he'd lie about something like that…"

--

            "Poor kid." Ryo muttered, as he placed the green file on the pile of the previously read files. The HakkuRanger were a three-person team; since it was against regulations to have a group under three count as a separate Ranger squad, the team would be dissolved, and the other two members relocated to new teams. Since Jianliang was switched to this group… that meant the HakkuRanger no longer existed.

            "Oh?" Rei asked bemusedly, as she looked at Ryo's face. The boy really was little good at concealing emotions, or at least he thought so. Chances are, she noticed the change of expression. "I thought you weren't too thrilled at this one? What brought the change of heart?"

            "… I've been in similar situations in the past. Just… Some of these damned regulations and the like." Ryo's voice grew quieter, as he pulled the pink folder to himself. "And the previous transfers and group separations too. It's part of the reason why I was looking forward to retirement…" Yeah, more than a good enough time to let the subject drop. It didn't do anyone any good to just live in the past, and not move on with the future. He came up to this decision a long time ago.

            "You might be familiar with some of the names in that one, Ryo-san." Rei said, noting the file he was checking. "I think an old… Acquaintance, of yours is in the files."

            "Hm?" He checked the last name briefly, noticing the kanji to a familiar surname. "Yagami? You mean this is Taichi's little sister? Hah! I haven't seen that bastard in a while!" The tone Ryo had when he said the word "Bastard" seemed to convey a much different feeling than most other people do.

            "Yagami Hikari. She'd probably function very well in the DejiRanger group, especially with the training she'd be getting for her powers."

            Ryo blinked a little, in surprise, as he checked over some of the notes inside. "She's a psychic? I thought… Telepathy and all of that stuff was just BS."

            "… Ryo, we're part of a police force that fights in spandex, and uses giant robots from another dimension in combat. I don't think telepathy is really that much of a stretch." Rei gave a small pause. "And telepathy's only a piece of her power. Really, if you must know, there's no clear information on how powerful her mind really is."

--

            The swarms only grew in size around the six ChoRanger, as they watches the currents of Evilmon surround them. For the six of them, it looked like the end. One of the strongest fighters was too heavily injured to fight; while the rest of the team all sported nasty looking cuts and bruises. All of there weapons were destroyed; all of their communicators were disabled, so help from their Zords was highly unlikely. In fact, all that was left, for the Evilmon now, was to just consume the flesh of these humans, and return to the conquering plans they had.

            Even as the Evilmon kept on surrounding them, the leader, a young man in a bright red uniform kept on shooting at them, with a laser pistol that was on its last legs of life. They were all that stood between them and Kyoto, and he'd be damned if he'd let Kyoto be destroyed due to his own failure. "Come on, you… You…" He barked out in pain, as on tried to attack him again, lunging for his good leg and taking a rather large bit, worsening his already bad status. He smacked at it, with the butt of the laser-pistol, with all intents to get it off.

            "Taichi, this isn't working!" A girl to the boy's side, donned in a yellow version of the suit, shouted. She, herself, was merely fighting with her fists and hands, and kicking everything in sight. Even then, the strategy was working horribly; with each attack, she ended up being scratched, bitten, or bruised. At this rate, the girl in yellow, ChoYellow, would soon collapse. She turned to a couple of other fighters, both holding up a young man in a blue outfit of spandex. "Mimi, Jyou, we really need help at this point!"

            "Don't bother! I can more than beat these assholes!" The red-suited teen, ChoRed, shouted, pistol-whipping the one who'd been previously biting his leg before. Of course, he couldn't be thinking straight; the boy's body showed many slashes and nips, his left leg bleeding quite profusely. The visor on his helmet was cracked, showing one brown eye.

            "Don't be stupid!" ChoYellow said. Still, she knew why he kept fighting. For the same reason she fought so hard, despite her whole body being racked with pain. If she and the rest even stopped for a moment… Then they wouldn't hesitate to swarm them, en mass. But what could they do? ChoBlue already collapsed, in pain, and needed two of the others to protect him… And ChoBlack had to go off soon… To get their last chance at victory. She only hoped he would make it in time, if at all.

            One feisty Evilmon hopped with all of his might, and jumped right into ChoRed's face. His tiny claws scratched at the helmet viciously, ripping off the remains of the visor and clawing at ChoRed's face. ChoRed screamed, as he desperately tried to yank off the creature, closing his eyes as tightly as he could. The creature held tight, breaking a portion of his helmet, as it crushed at it. He knew what the monster intended on doing; it would shoot its specialty attack right into his face. Fried human brains always tasted better than raw, after all.

            The boy screamed, while ChoYellow tried to run over to him. However, as she turned away from the Evilmon she was fighting, she forgot one important rule of combat: never turn your back on your enemies. Immediately, two Evilmon bit into her calves, harshly. Barking in pain, she fell to her knees, as she struggled to shove the Evilmon off.

            "Sora!" One of rangers trying to protect ChoBlue screamed, as he ran over, leaving only one protector to watch over the semi-conscious young man. He would've wanted it this way, the one in white spandex decided, as she ran over and kicked at the Evilmon harshly, trying to help her injured friend. He ended up in his state, due to protecting her. And ChoBlue would not forgive himself, had So- ChoYellow been devoured. Then, she heard a sharp scream from elsewhere, and turned to see ChoRed struggling with the Evilmon on his face, trying to claw it off himself.

            "Taichi!" ChoWhite felt stuck; wouldn't ChoBlue want his best friend safe too? Oh, he couldn't help either like this! The situation became too desperate, and now they desperately needed a miracle, an ally, anything!

            As if on cue, a grand flash of pink light past through the area. It illuminated the battlefield, flashing by at a grand and hurried speed. The light had no effect on the Rangers themselves… But had one hell of an effect on the Evilmon. All over the field, Evilmon rolled on the ground in pain, holding their minds and screaming wildly. The one that formerly clung to Taichi's face now was slamming its face into the ground repeatedly, howling about the Ocean.

            And, in the distance of all of this insanity, there were a whole brigade of police vehicles, ambulances and containment vehicles. It was not due to them that this happened, however; rather, it was the fault of a young teen girl, with a slightly taller teen boy, both in similar spandex outfits. She stood at the edge of the field, her hands and the visor of her helmet both glowing the same eerie pink as the light. She lifted her hand high into the air. To her side, the boy held onto her shoulder, and watched the rest of the battle field.

            "… They made it…" The one still supporting ChoBlue up, the girl in a green suit, said. Her tone bordered on shock at first, before reiterating "They made it! Thank god, they made it here!"

            The younger girl, ChoPink, rose her hands up, while the Evilmon were levitated high into the air. Some started to cartwheel in the air, spinning like little pinwheels on a windy day. Others just sort of hung in the air, looking as if they'd fall at any moment. With a sudden drop of her hands, the Evilmon fell hard to the ground. A good many fainted right on the spot; others just merely suffered broken bones and severe bruises. At the sound of this, the police within the area rushed out, arresting a good many of the survivors.

            "… Hikari…" ChoRed said, looking right at ChoPink. She looked at the older boy, her helmet hiding her expression of intense agony and exhaustion. She suddenly fell to her knees. "Hikari!" The boy rushed over, grabbing her shoulders before she fell face-first into the ground. She looked up, her eyes aching something awful. "Hikari, it's alright now! Just keep awake, and keep on listening to me…"

            "… I'm sorry…" She sounded intensely guilty, along with weak and near the brink of collapse. The boy by her side knelt down, rubbing her back a little.

            "Hikari-chan, it's really not you're fault… You know how headquarters is about this sort of thing. You didn't have any control over it." He shut up after that comment, however. The boy in black had promised her he'd not bring up the subject again, especially around her older brother.

ChoPink weakly held up her head, struggling to keep it looking in ChoRed's eyes. "… I was selfish… I didn't head out right to battle because I was talking to headquarters… And now they're taking me away…"

            With that, she promptly fainted. Taichi wouldn't know what she meant by that for the rest of the week, as she would not bring it up again until five minutes before she left. On that day, she packed up her possessions, and left for Tokyo.

--

            "Well, no matter how powerful she is, at least I know there's one Ranger who's definitely not going to piss me off. She's a really sweet kid, you know." Ryo stated, as he placed the pink file with the rest, before looking at Rei. "Any news on the last one?"

            "I'm not sure myself… I ran out of time to check it. I do know one thing about this person…" She checked the name quickly, to make sure she got it right, "Orimoto Izumi, is a rookie. Not only that, but she's a first year here."

            Ryo looked very surprised at this. A rookie, in the ranks of the highest? Someone that hasn't even had a full year of service to the Digital Police? This made little to no sense, as is. There must be something extremely amazing about this girl, something to the level of Hikari's abilities, or some sort of fighting skills, or something. He took the light purple, nearly white, folder from Rei's hand and began reading.

            For a moment, the expression on his face became extremely blank. Then, he balked. "You've got to be kidding me… You really must be kidding."

            "Nope… That's the folder they gave me. Is there something really horrible in the folder? I mean, I just figured it was thin like that for no good reason."

            "It's thin because she's got nothing note-worthy!" Neo said, nearly snapping at the innocent girl to his side. He plopped the folder on the table, opening it wide to show the scant contents to here. "A win ratio of 20%, a Zord that barely can do damage… Hell, she can't even use her bow and arrow correctly yet! And she's only been a ranger two months! Nowhere even close to a year of action, and she's already a part of the elites, especially with a record like this?!"

            "Stop yelling!" Rei shouted at him. She felt used to yelling, at this point, but she was not too keen about being verbally abused by someone who she only met today, and would have to work with until god knows when. He silenced, at her cry, before blushing something awful, and bowing deeply again. Wow, she thought as she watched him, this will be an entertaining year.

            "Sorry… I'm just not having a good year… Especially since this is the last thing I really want to do currently…" Ryo rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly, as he resist the urge to start giggling like an idiot. He directed his hand to the folder once again, and tried his hardest to suppress the anger. "And it really feels like we're really being mocked by the superiors with things like… Like this! Honest to god, I'm more than sure they're just assembling this 'crack team', just to get rid of a lot of the crap fighters and dangerous team-members." And hoisted them onto him, due to the outburst he had at his retirement. Yeah, the one in which he called the Chief of Digital Police an 'impotent douche bag'.

            "… Do you really think this?" She seemed utterly flabbergasted at this. It's as if he had proclaimed himself King of Crabs, stripped of his clothes, and light his head on fire right then and there. Rei stuttered a little, her eyes wide with utter shock. Her hands fidgeted rather stiffly, rubbing against each other roughly. Finally, she stopped stuttering and shaking, and sat rather rigidly. "So, you really have no clue what they're up against?" She asked, her voice an emotionless tone, unless you could detect one smidge of utter shock within it.

            "Yeah… It says nothing within the packet that the upper office gave me… And I don't know who to ask about it." Obviously, the group couldn't be an ornamental task-force… Not from Rei's reaction. The moment he said that, she nearly fell out of her wheelchair, only keeping her supported by grabbing onto the handles tightly. What were they up against, to bring out such vivid and intense emotions from her?

            "Oh my…" she wheeled a little bit away, her mind spinning in surprise. He had no idea what they were up against… No wonder why he was acting so sour to her, and being so pissed off. He didn't realize the importance of this at all… No one even bothered to tell him their name. Rei felt a hand, the hand feeling strong as it pressed onto her shoulder. She turned to see Ryo again, his face filled with all sorts of confusion. "They never gave you the name…"

            "What's the name of this group?" He just wanted answers, at this point. Whatever this was, the information made even the group who wrote up the packet too nervous to mention them by name… Or they just wanted to lull him into a sense of false security. Either way, this wasn't making the brunette feel any bit comfortable, in the last.

            "They're… They're… The group is the Reaper Five." She quietly added, as she turned her attention to the files, especially the light-lavender one from before. As she looked in it, her eyes nearly fell out of their sockets, and her mouth opened widely. "This… This is all of the information on Miss Orimoto?" When Ryo nodded, Rei made a tiny gasp, nearly a sob. She placed the folder down, lowering her head.

            "Rei? … Rei, what's wrong?" Ryo said. She looked right to his eyes, trying to hide the sadness in her face.

            "That girl, Miss Orimoto… She stands no chance against the Reaper Five, and there's nothing we can do about it. She's fated to die, at their hands…"

--

            "EEK!" That was the exact phrase ElePurple, the newest of the five EleRanger, used, as she was pitched right out of the window, out of the goddamn abandoned warehouse, into the goddamn pavement. She whimpered a little as she got up, rubbing her skinned elbows and knees. Sometimes, being a full-blown Ranger was no fun at all; especially when the monster of the day tossed you around, like an over-sized UFO catcher.

            The monster, a rather silly looking tree-monster, laughed at her pain, as it hopped out of the window itself, crashing the rest of the glass that she hadn't broken herself. Thank goodness for the helmet, at least. Usually, going head-first out of a window leads to a lot more cuts than she currently had. It landed in a rather fierce battle stance, holding out one wooden hand in a "come and get me, punk!" sort of way. "What's the matter, girlie? Are my hard limbs too much for you to take?"

            "Please, when it comes to wood, you're all bark and no bite!" ElePurple snapped, as she made a hastily stance, taking out her bow and arrows again. She knew that the chances she'd hit him were less than zero; however, at least the arrows would do more damage than all of the kicks she'd been doing to his face and even his nuts did. All those did was make her feet and legs hurt really bad and scratched up her spandex.

            "All bark? I'll show you the powers of the forest and trees!" The monster, Woodmon, shouted, as he pointed at her. However, instead of merely punching at her, or even grabbing her again, he did something she did not expect; he bum rushed her, sending the girl flying. Her bow and arrow went one direction; she went another, slamming into a building. The Woodmon growled in disappointment, after he sent her flying. "You mean this is the strongest warrior the Rangers send after me, when I go on a rampage? You will be defeated by my mighty wood, bitch!"

            She rolled out of the way as he made a ramming attack into the ground she was standing at. ElePurple knew how screwed she was without that bow and arrow set, and she could tell she was not going to beat him by herself. Man, if only she knew what to do in these sorts of situations… No, she thought to herself, as she got back up again. You don't need help now, and you're doing well for someone who's barely had any combat. After all, you're not dead yet! Just go, and get your bow, and get that pine-scented creep!

            ElePurple got onto her hands and feet, and made a dash for the weapon, as the Woodmon still tried to figure out where the blood stain that should've been the remains of that annoying newbie Ranger was. He noticed she was still running about, and hopped to his feet only as she grabbed her bow and arrow. "What are you going to do, pierce me like a shish-kabob? Girlie, I am a tree!"

            "Well, let's see how you're heavy wooden hide takes this, you pest!" She launched an arrow right to him, will all intents on getting him in the eye… Only to watch it sail by, rather harmlessly, to his side, as it went and impaled itself to a random box. The air between the two grew very awkward, as a left fluttered by in the wind. "… Alright, let me try that again." He was in such a deep shock at how badly that went, he didn't even move as she got out another arrow, and shot it. This one went whizzing by his head, going through the window that they'd jumped from

            At first, he was quite disturbed at how badly her aim turned out to be. Then, he just stood there in amusement, as many arrows soared by him, going at speeds not particularly life-threatening, or even scary. With each attempt, she ended up letting out some sort of expletive… In some odd language. Was that Italian or something? Either way, she seemed more than happy to keep this up, until she ran out of arrows. "… You want me to do anything? Or should I just keep standing here?"

            "Don't you… Don't you go and get lost now, merda!" The whole incident finally transcended the line between embarrassing and utterly humiliating, as she kept on screwing up her shots. In her mind, she swore that, as soon as she could, she would go and take a decent archery class. Oh, why did she get stuck with a bow and arrow!?

            Woodmon yawned, and scratched his head a little. This wasn't funny anymore, watching this girl screw up. Now, it was just plain dull. "Yeah… You're probably having a blast with this… But I'm more than done with it." He launched out his right arm-like branch, while shouting out his attack phrase, "Woody Smash!" The attack sent her flying into a cement wall in a nearby warehouse, injuring her something awful. She knew she heard a rib snap in the slam, and her left arm ached horribly now. The dizziness in her head clouded her mind, making her incapable of even noticing that Woodmon was aiming his arms right at her.

            "BRANCH DRA- GAHH!" That certainly didn't sound like an attack name… ElePurple opened her eyes, to see two other Rangers, a rather heavyset figure and a slightly smaller one. Both were looking at her, and she could feel a pair of arms, probably from the larger Ranger, holding her up.

            "It's alright Izumi… Don't worry a thing. You actually did pretty well." The heavyset figure said, trying to sound comforting. He always told her things like this; perhaps EleBlue felt that he needed to boost her confidence, in order for her to improve or something.

            "That's right! I would've done a lot worse!" The smaller figure said, nodding along with the older Ranger. He, EleGreen, seemed to be truthful with his comment… If anything, they were on the same level as each other, combat-wise. In the distance, she could see two figures, one a boy in red, the other a boy in white, both quickly finishing off the battle for her, and handcuffing the offensive monster. Great… EleRed and EleWhite didn't even have to put up a fight with it. How on earth did she get chosen for that DejiRanger thing…? No, Izumi-chan, stop putting yourself down! You were put into DejiRanger for some reason, and it's probably due to some potential you just haven't reached yet. After all, you are a rookie, and you haven't gotten used to fighting yet.

            Right after the battle, both of the two Rangers walked to the rest of the group, EleWhite looking rather dark and offensive with each step. Probably, he still felt sore that Izumi, who couldn't hit a large oak-tree with an arrow, was chosen for the elites. Either that or he actually saw this. EleRed seemed a little easier-going though. "You've got some balls, to face Woodmon on your own!" EleRed said cheerfully, as he patted her shoulder. "But next time, leave the battle to the professionals… Or at least until you have something closer to you're level."

            "Professionals? Hah! Since when are you good at fighting, Takuya?" She playfully said, as she punched him jokingly in the arm. At least he wasn't too upset. And she knew how good he was… And EleBlue, and EleWhite. At least EleGreen was right on his comment. At least she never shot an arrow accidentally into herself. He and his axes were a whole other story, however.

            "What on earth were you thinking, Orimoto?!" EleWhite, however, was definitely quite pissed at this. "You could've gotten yourself killed in that! I mean, look at you… And look at your arm!" He pointed to the arm, which most likely suffered from a fracture. She rubbed at it, sheepishly, before stopping at the ringing pain from that.

            "I… I thought I could more than take him by myself…" She muttered, looking away from EleWhite's visor. "He didn't seem to be too major… And I figured I'd get him with my arrows." A quick glance of the battlefield showed at least twelve arrows, all in various states of impalement on the ground, in buildings, in doors, through windows, and in several wood boxes.

            He shook his head, giving up on arguing with her. With that, the white Ranger walked off, his total aura casting a darkish mood in the air. Before he left for home, he turned to ElePurple and said, "You'll never make it in the DejiRanger elites, with an attitude like that. You might as well stay here… It's better than returning in a coffin, at least."

--

            "Rei, please calm down…" Ryo had been rubbing the redhead's back for a good half-hour, as he tried desperately to calm her down from this nervous fit. She's gone into a state of minor shock, after he'd said that, and became extremely worried about that Izumi girl. "Look… Nothing bad will happen to her… We'll just contact headquarters, and make sure they didn't give us the wrong teen…"

            "… It can't be a mistake though…" She said, still sniffling a little at the thought. That poor girl… Doomed to death, before she even had a chance in the Rangers! What a horrible thought.

            "Well, then there must be something about her that makes her a strong person! She's probably hiding a trait or something that no one but a few of the bosses upstairs knows about!" He said, trying desperately to make Rei stop crying. He really was bad with crying girls… It was so much easier when the girls would throw things and yell at him. She stopped crying, but still became very quiet, in an extremely unnerving way. "… I don't suppose… You could tell me anything…"

            "Hm?" She knew what he was going to ask, but she still acted as if she didn't. He knew nothing about Reaper Five, or what was connected to all of it. Perhaps he was better off, that way. But he would ask, and since he was her supervisor, she'd have to tell him.

            "What's… What's so bad about them, anyway?" He asked. "They can't be any worse than anything the Digital Police force has faced in the past, right?"

            She became quiet again. Her face turned to stone, her lips press together tightly. In fact, the only view of emotion for the red-haired girl came from her hands, which tightly gripped the wheelchair's hand rests again. Then, her voice almost a whisper, she said, "Do you fear death, Mr. Ryo?"

--

            The room felt devoid of any life. Yes, there were the starts of life growing in various cultures, tubes, and beakers around the tables, and the computers within the massive room glowed with an eerie false-life, but none of this felt true. This wasn't life that you feel outside, in the warm and loving sun, as you tired to enjoy your day. This wasn't the life that surrounded people all over the world, whether they desired it or not. No, this was a perversion of life, a false life that felt all the more fake to anyone who came from the outside. This room was not full of life, but rather, it was a place where to grow death.

            A mysterious woman, with shockingly pale hair for her age, and a red dress entered the room. She walked smoothly, her gait very sensual and rather coarse at the same time. The feeling one could get off her, as she looked to the various empty chairs and places of the computer room, was one of hunting, of a predator who found a piece of game.

            The white-haired woman walked over to a single man, the only person in the room besides herself. The man, a rather grotesque looking male with greasy hair seemed to pay her no heed, as he typed on the laptop on the computer, various double-helixes and models and insignias staining the screen. The woman watched over his shoulder for a while, acting indifferent to the models and scientific bits on the screen.

            "The D-Reaper was destroyed in Okinawa, you know." The white-haired woman said, her voice showing no clear emotion. The man nodded ever so slightly, a gesture most people would not catch as they watched him on the computer. "The three HakkuRanger defeated the last piece of it… Cable Reaper, I believe they called it. It took several hours of clean up, close to a day in fact."

            "This is leading to good new, right Arukenimon?" The man's voice sounded not gruff, or hateful… But sort of dreamy. As if he really wasn't paying full attention to anything he did, but was lost in a happy day-dream. In fact, he didn't seem to pay any mind, as the white-haired woman reached into a hidden pocket and took out a vial.

            The vial glowed, similar to a glow-stick or some similar decoration at a late-night festival. The glow didn't come from some man-made chemical, however; it came from a tiny little wire, about the size of a large word, trapped within the vial itself. It quivered and twitched, moving in a rather sickening manner. The man's pallor face grinned, the teeth in his mouth stained from many years of harsh coffee, cigarettes, and improper care. He kept looking to the screen, as the woman places it beside him. "Very well, Arukenimon. Head over to the rest rooms and take a break. You've been a very good girl for me."

            She nodded, and bowed deeply. The woman smoothly walked out of the room, looking back at the man on the laptop as she did. She closed the door behind herself, encasing the room into darkness, besides the glow of the computers and the neon brightness of the vial, which carried the label: "Cable Reaper: Reaper Cell".


	2. Episode Two: Uniting a Winning Combo!

FANTASUCHIKKU Senshi DejiRanger! Episode Two: Uniting a winning combo! What do you mean the Ranger suits aren't ready?!

(Disclaimer: As said in the previous chapter, Digimon is own by Bandai, Saban/Disney, and Toei animation. Also, Sentai/Power Rangers is a product of Saban/Disney, Toei, and Bandai too. Why has no one else thought up this mix? Just my pondering… I've made no money off of this production, and do not intend on doing so. And I appreciate all of the reviews I've gotten at this point! Thank you very much! )

            Digital Police Headquarters; a massive, bulky building in the streets of Tokyo, that stood out from the various attractive skyscrapers. No, DP Headquarters, as Rangers would sometimes call it, stood out like an insanely-colored jellybean in a box of plain milk chocolates. Several teens and young adults, all wearing similar black outfits with a single color for details, loitered around the main lobby. Some just acted like average people, talking amongst themselves about fashion, school, or whatever may have been on their minds. Others looked oddly stiff, as they sat in rigid fashion, possibly waiting for a call from the captains on team arrangements.

            "HOLD THE ELEVATOR! HOLD THE GODDAMN ELEVATOR!!" And then, there was the lunatic in goggles, running through the lobby and screaming at the top of his lungs, in English nonetheless. At least two people looked at him, followed by shaking their heads at this, while muttering something about 'Goddamn idiot-gaijin'. The "Idiot-Gaijin", however, didn't care; he just wasn't in the mood to go up stairs and this seemed to be the best way of getting attention.

            The strategy worked either way, as a horrified teen, around the lunatic's age, kept the door open while staring at him as if he'd run through the lobby of Headquarters, while screaming in foreign tongues. Which is completely understandable, as that what just happened. The goggle-headed lunatic dashed in immediately, accidentally smacking one person with the rather heavy luggage he carried.

            The elevator went onto its merry way, as all of the passengers dipped into an uncomforting silence. The lunatic with goggles, a Japanese-born youth by the name of Daisuke, stood in there quietly for a few moments before turning to the guy he'd smacked in the chest with the heavy luggage a short time ago. He said to the guy, in perfect Japanese, "So, do you know where conference room 220 is?"

            The guy, who was still rubbing his chest from before, looked at him. Well, "look" wouldn't be a proper word for it; a more suiting choice of phrasing would be "glared." "Don't see why you want to know… But that's where I'm going too." The guy muttered.

            Daisuke merely ignored the dark intonations with the statement, more worried about other things on his mind. "Ah, that's great! Can I follow along with you?" He asked, before going onto another train of thought, "Wait… Are you Ryo Akiyama?"

            "…" The guy looked himself over for a moment. Blue, short hair, grey eyes, more Chinese features than Japanese, and a bit lankier than any picture of Ryo had ever shown him as. "I'm sorry, but no. I'm not sure how you came up to that idea, actually."

            "Guess not, huh." The goggle-headed lunatic said, noting the annoyance in the other teen's voice, finally. He chose to leave him be, or at least act like that for a few seconds. Then, "I'm sorry."

            "Don't worry about it." The blue-haired guy had no desire to talk to him, at this point… In his mind, this guy, Jen, hoped quite sincerely that this was not going to be someone he'd have to work with often in the future. Then again, he really didn't want to work with anyone in the building. All he wanted was to be in Okinawa again… Not being forced to do this… Okay, he thought, now you're just acting like a brat, like everyone assumes of you. Come on; try to be a little nicer… He probably wants to be here less than you… No, if that were the case, then he'd probably have pitched himself from a window instead. "So… You here for DejiRanger too?"

            Daisuke nodded, rather enthusiastically, "Yeah! It's great!" Not the response Jen was hoping for, there. "I mean, at first when I got the call from the NYC Headquarters, I was sure I was going to get canned! This is a really big improvement over loosing my partner and my job!" Really not the response that Jen was looking for, and something that just made the job seemed worse than before.

            "Oh? What made you…? Well, think that?" Jen asked warily, hoping that it came from some minor incident or something. He definitely acted like a rookie, this… Huh. Maybe Jen was being over-critical. He already made several judgments on one of his new teammates, and he didn't even know the guy's name. "And what is your name, exactly?"

            "My name? Daisu- Wait no. That's not right. Japanese names are said last name first… Motamiya Daisuke!" The lunatic goggle-head felt like a massive moron, just that moment. In his mind, he kept on shouting about how dumb one must be to forget how you say names around here. "And it's no big deal really… I just shot up a whole city block."

            Oh god. "A whole… Block?" Jen asked, trying to suppress the dark thoughts in his mind again. This is who he would be working with?

            "Well, it highly exaggerated…" Jen calmed down quickly, feeling his throat ease up. "It was only half of a city block. And I don't see why Headquarters cared… All they'd pay for was the mailbox, the buses, and some of the windows. I mean, there are more than enough insurance companies that can take care of the cars!" The tension suddenly rose up again. "And no one was even hurt, save for a few cuts and bruises!" The feelings in the pit of Jen's stomach doubled, as he leaned onto the wall of the elevator slightly.

            "Well, at least no one was hurt…" Jen tried to keep thinking positively, if only so that he would suffer a panic attack right then and there. The air in the elevator seemed a lot heavier now…

            "Yeah! Usually, it's a lot worse!" That did it. Jen began to cough, as his throat felt like it just burned itself horribly. Daisuke, on noticing this, asked him, "What's wrong? Are you feeling okay?"

            "You've… You've hurt people before?" The blue-haired teen could hardly believe it. This is what he's supposed to work with… Thoughts of if the rest of the team would be psychos like this… Motamiya and just the realization that he left Okinawa for this? He felt faint.

            "Well, not badly!" Daisuke desperately tried to calm the blue-haired teen down, feeling extremely guilty for freaking him out this bad. Maybe rationalizing it would help. "Look… The monsters would've hurt them worse! They would've killed them, and I just shot them!" Not helping. Jen now began to turn pale. "And none of them died! Honest!"

            Now he was hyperventilating. Poor Daisuke stood in the elevator, trying to get the poor boy to calm down, as he held onto a wall and had what appeared to be an asthma attack. "It's really not that bad, when you think about it…" Daisuke said, as he tapped Jen on the shoulder.

            "Back off!" Thwack!

            When the elevator came to a stop, anyone looking into it could see one boy on one side of the room trying to calm his breathing and looking to the wall, and another boy on the other side, nursing a black-eye, while cussing under his breath "Well, you're not so sweet and harmless yourself, bucko…"

            The room both of them were looking for, conference room 220 wasn't particularly far from the elevator, only a couple of meters. Inside a group of people stood beside the plain and grey-toned long table, looking over papers, files, and what appeared to be boxes and packages of clothes and helmets. The room itself seemed not at all special, and looked like the average boardroom for business meetings. However, the utter lack of free-will and exclusiveness was zapped, with the brightly-colored spandex, packaging bubbles, and oddly-shaped weapons that scattered the floor.

            "Hey! Are either of you two Daisuke or Jial- Jaila- … Jenrya?" The man in the front of the group, a nineteen year old with brown hair and bright blue eyes said, looking to a packet of papers for a moment. The young man seemed a bit swamped with work, considering in the background there was a bit of a scuffle and rummaging of boxes by a blonde girl as she shouted about something not being here, and how could those idiots forget to send it. Huh. Everyone here seemed rather rushed; Daisuke figured that none of them have had tea yet, or probably something like that. He sure as hell didn't remember everyone in Japan being this… Poor tempered.

            "Yeah, I'm Daisu-"The goggle-headed lunatic was cut off, however, by Jenrya.

            "Li Jianliang, second in command of the HakkuRanger; reporting for duty sir!" The blue-haired teen said, first saluting Ryo and then bowing deeply. Ryo blushed a little at this, while Daisuke stood there, a bit miffed.

            "You know… It's really not necessary to go that far on your greeting, Li… A simple here is fine…" At least he and Yagami were both extremely professional, with the way they held themselves up in this sort of meeting. Then again, both were in the Digital Police much longer than Kimura, who just sort of nodded and went to sit down, and Orimoto, who just acted the same as this Motamiya did, besides the glaring in anger bit.

            "Yeah, Lee, it's totally not needed to be so formal…" Daisuke muttered, annoyed that the other boy had pretty much dismissed him just now. He still looked pretty pale, and was definitely trying to avoid eye contact with him. Man, Daisuke thought, you'd think I told him I'm an axe-murderer or something… Once again forgetting Japanese custom, Daisuke extended his hand and said, "So, anyway, my name's Motamiya Daisuke! Do I have to tell you where I'm from and all that?"

            "That's fine…" Ryo said, as he looked at Daisuke's hand for a moment, as if regarding it as a straw dog. "We've already covered your previous position and location in the information packet. Well, let us get on with the introduction meeting! Will everyone please take their seats?"

            Daisuke quickly chose out a seat, while resisting the urge to laugh. Already, he'd acted like a moron to a new team member, and the guy who's most likely training them… Hell, why did they need training anyway? He'd been a Ranger since he was eleven, and sure as hell didn't need someone instructing him on anything. Sure, there were times in which Daisuke couldn't control his weapons… And he would over-exert himself in battle, but it certainly never hurt him! (Just made him pass out for a good five hours or so… He never lost a fight, when that would happen!) All this would turn out to be, in Daisuke's mind, just an utter waste of time from going after the bad guys and beating them senseless!

            The other rangers took their seats, as Ryo walked to the front of the room, already starting his speech. "Now," he said, trying to look as impressive and as adult as he could. Might as well give out a show for them, make them think he was quite braver and more in control than he really was. "As many of you may already know, this is the elites. You have been selected from over five thousand Rangers, world wide, in order to participate in this group. Your skill are remarkable, your Zords are the best quality, and you all… You all…" Well, might as well say the truth. "You all are either dangerous, fuck-ups, or both at the same time."

            The group balked at this. Well, that was an understatement, really. They looked extremely insulted, as if someone had told them their previous group members were cheap whores.

            "Dangerous?! How the heck am I dangerous?! I can barely hit the side of a barn! (And I cannot believe I just said that…)"

            "Look, I'm no more as dangerous as any of the monsters we need to fight on a regular basis!"

            "Okay, tell me I didn't leave Okinawa for this? To just sit here and have some twenty-year-old insult me to my face."

            "… People in Kyoto are never this rude, sir. Can you please try to be nicer?"

            "… This may be the first time I've been verbally abused on the same day as I joined the group. I'm quite sorry, whatever I did…"

            "Don't apologize to him… He's just being an ass." Rei muttered, quite annoyed already. He may not have wanted to be there, but that was no excuse. At least he could try to give the rest of the Rangers a chance…

            "I know I'm being an ass, but they will not stand a chance unless they know the truth, Miss Rei. Look here, all of you," then, he suddenly stopped. No… He couldn't tell them what Rei told him, about the Reaper Five. They never faced anything like they would here… And the last thing he wanted was five teens scared of their wits. Hell, he got scared from what little Rei told him. "… You need to be retrained. You all need some serious teamwork, and you'll need it quick. In less than a month, you will need to be at the top of your game, and like hell will I let a bunch of teens go and get themselves killed by the hands of our enemies."

            What little confidence Ryo had in them. Daisuke sat in his seat, brewing in anger over what Ryo said, and felt more than a little miffed that he felt they were so crappy as fighters. Hikari felt it was obvious who Mr. Akiyama was talking about most. She barely could even bend a spoon without blowing up the rest of the silverware drawer, or reading the minds of everyone who used that particular spoon that week. Jen sat there, partly ignoring Ryo, deciding that he probably just didn't have any formal training when it came to teaching others. Hopefully, he'd learn soon, as dealing with some wannabe drill sergeant was not something he looked forward to. Izumi just sort of shifted in her seat embarrassedly, while just hoping he wasn't talking about her. Then again, with a record such as hers, it was kind of hard not to think that. And Kouichi? He sat there, letting it all sink in. Ryo was extremely truthful, at least, and he had to give him kudos for being so up front. Too bad he'd drag down the rest of the team…

            "Now… I know I must be insulting some of you, and that's just fine. Because, by this time next year, you will be the best of the best; you will all reach your full potentials, and none of you will shoot up half a block, just to help an old lady." In the back of the room, Daisuke balked. "But it's really going to take all of your strength to face off who you'll be facing. Now, are there any questions?"

            "Yeah. Who pissed in your corn-flakes today!?"

--

            The puzzle still missed a drastic piece to it. Arukenimon frowned, looking into the vial of subjects, upset on how poorly the cultures did. This batch failed too; the work she and Yukio had done, all resulting in this… This incomplete specimen, a creature that wouldn't last a minute outside of the tube, much less against the Rangers. It mutated incorrectly, in its transition period, and now the creature developed into something resembling an abortion mixed with a fish, with lungs that were too weak and small to even function.

            She flushed out the embryonic-like fluids from the tube, leaving the failure to suffocate to death on the air that now grew in its case. Arukenimon sighed, logging the failure into a nearby notebook, the third one of the day. Nothing seemed to develop properly, in this earthen water, except for the drones, and even then they were only throwaway tools. At best, they were decent distractions, which bought them time against the Rangers. At worst, they would have to be what she'd need to fight with. That and that disgusting creature Yukio created. That… Mummymon beast. She shuddered, in utter revulsion at the thought.

            "It won't work without the right water…" There was only one proper water they could use for the experiment. The murky black waters of the Dark Ocean, waters filled with both viable proteins and the needed amount of arsenic and other toxins. Without that specific water, her cultures were doomed to fail and flounder horridly, turning into malfunctions like that. "We need the water of the Dark Ocean…"

            "Well, what will we need to do for it, Arukenimon?" She turned, looking back to see the pallor man with greasy purple hair and wistful eyes. He stood in the doorway, looking first to the botched experiment, as it flounder in the tube, making a dying gasping of air and pleads, before turning back to the white-haired woman. "I can see it's not working with the current waters? Will Digital World water be a suiting replacement?"

            She shook her head, looking back to the previous notations. "It only gives them a free-will and a Digi-Core. That, in itself, is the last thing we want… Then, we may as well give these creatures consciences."

            "Well, there is one place that I can recall…" His tone sounded distant, and melodic, as he spoke, "That may have an access code… With the code, I can get you all of the black, murky water you wish… And then, you may make all of the experiments you desire, including the big one…" He didn't like using the term she gave her pet project, Maelstrom-Maker. Instead, he insisted on calling it "the big one", preferring simplistic terminology for the work.

            "And where, Yukio, shall we find such a heavily guarded code, such as the one for the Dark Ocean gate? It's not as if we can stroll into the Ranger Headquarters and thieve it from them…" He didn't seem to pay her any mind, as he reached into a pocket of his purple trench coat. With a distant smile, Yukio Oikawa handed Arukenimon a small vial of water.

            If one was to look into the vial, it would surely remind them of both horrific pollution and the Elder Ones from Lovecraftian lore. The water's murkiness seem to hold an eerie quality of life to it, a sort of primordial ooze, as it flicked and splashed in the tube, floating around on seemingly it's own free will. It was barely enough for one creature, not nearly enough for the work she needed to do. Still, Arukenimon stared at the vial, this Unholy Grail of life and death. Oikawa handed the small vial to her, smiling happily at the look on her face.

            "There's much more, back at the Headquarters, but that should be enough for one experiment. Be sure and make this a good one, Aru… We'll need at least enough time to go and pay a visit to some old friends."

--

            "There's something really wrong with these outfits, especially this one." Rei said, while looking over what appeared to be a black and white spandex costume, holding up the limbs, or at least the pieces in which a limb would go in. The suit looked… It looked way too long. There were all sorts of problems with it, including tightness of the chest, too large of hands and feet and… Well, just a feeling that the outfit would be unsuitable for combat, if nothing else.

            "I can tell you what's wrong with it on one glance, Rei..." Ryo said, looking over some of the details. He picked up the outfit by the shoulders, letting it completely unfurl. The outfit didn't fit standards for a Girl's Ranger uniform. There was no skirt on the dress, instead what appeared to be space for certain bits of anatomy that girl's do not have. The cut didn't fit for a girl of Izumi's height and measurements, too tight in the chest, too long for her arms and legs. Were she to use this, it would hang off of her, making her look less like a member of DejiRanger, and more of a cosplayer in an ill-fitting store-bought uniform. In fact, this outfit looked more suiting for a… "How badly can they fuck up!?"

            "The rest are made just as poorly." Rei said, as she looked to the rest of the stacks. Most of the new uniforms looked shoddy and rushed, as if they never had a decent design figured out before putting them into production. Rather than the ornate looks of the other Ranger uniforms, the DejiRanger uniforms were merely a solid, plain color, with only the number order of the team members, from one through five, done into the back. The limbs, even if they were the same gender as the other four Rangers, looked completely wrong and rather generic, as if they weren't built for the specific Rangers.

            "Oh my God, tell me they didn't try passing off generic Ranger suits for the actual thing, and expect us to accept them for use. Please, Rei, tell me they don't think we're that stupid." Ryo just put his head into his hands, as he shook his head. This all better be fault of the base being behind schedule or something… All of this stress. It was bad enough that, instead of a decent base or training facility, the DejiRanger would stay in a two-room apartment about three blocks away from the Headquarters and would have to commute here… No, now he had to deal with explaining to them their new uniforms were complete and total pieces of crap. He looked at the helmets really quick.

            Intricate details, done in white, black and, in Orimoto's case, light purple, almost lavender. The helmets themselves had the code numbers of all the DejiRanger, from 001 through 005 imprinted on the back of the head. At least, Ryo thought, as he looked at each up close, examining each bit right down to minor computer systems implanted in the helmets, systems that were corresponded to the transformer wristbands that came with the (cheap knock-off) Ranger uniforms. Without the helmets, the added benefits of the uniform, from the super-strength to the additional weapons, even the DejiZords would be completely useless. Hell, the Rangers couldn't even transform without the helmets, making them the most crucial part of the Ranger uniform.

             "At least they didn't skimp in this part." Ryo murmured, as he picked up the helmets, looking in the interiors, and mostly at the mouth-pieces installed inside. Rei wheeled around, picking up the remaining pieces of packaging and misshapen uniforms. She didn't look at him, as she listened, but rather, let her mind wander a little.

            Rei didn't dare tell Mr. Ryo everything. He may have needed to know the truth, and that these were a group that no other Ranger team had defeated yet, but she dare not tell him all he really needed to know. It just wouldn't be feasible, with everything that had happened, in the past few weeks… And he and the Rangers would find out within due time.

            Perhaps, she thought, it would be best not to grow to close to the Ranger and this college drop-out, as she watched him work with the helmets, trying to configure the technology in the helm to correspond with the wristband transformers, so as to allow for transformation. All of the anger Ryo harbored, at that moment, seemed to fade off, as he worked with the metallic items, trying to get the right combination of beeps and lights to go off.

            Was she to grow close to these people that would just lead to a heavy amount of heartbreak, especially considering what they were fated for? Rei couldn't bear the thought of bringing herself up to that much disappointment.

--

            "So, let me get this straight… You were the leader of your Ranger team, despite how risky your tactics are?"

            "Well, it seemed like the best option at the time. The two other stronger members were mentally nuts, and the sanest, most stable people were weak as cardboard on their worst days. It seemed only natural for me to be chosen as the Red Ranger of the ArmoRanger." Daisuke responded, sipping at the can softly. Usually, he just guzzled sodas and that sort of thing down, but it was canned green tea. He still needed to get re-acquainted with the stuff, having spoiled his taste buds on Jolt cola and Red Bull.

            One of the more trafficked areas of the base, despite its sparse furnishings and cramp-ness, the vending room made up for it's lacks with an abundance of vending machines, ranging from ice-cream, to drinks, to full-blown meals in a can. In the left-hand corner, Kouichi stood by the lone pachinko machine, more trying to draw attention away from him, and partially because he wanted to play some pachinko. However, he ran out of money on purchasing a train ticket to Headquarters, so now he stood in the game room, with not enough yen for a single game or even a ramune. Fate, in his mind, treated Kouichi rather cruelly. Never did things go the right way. Now, here he was with a second chance to be with a team… And he didn't have enough money for a game of pachinko. In essence, he felt like an idiot.

            "Hey!" Izumi shouted over to the quiet kid. She guessed the guy was shy or something. Alright, change that to "borderline sociophobic" on him, who kept on staying over to some corner or other and becoming pale or blush whenever someone would try to talk to him. Sure enough, he looked to her surprised, blushing, and stammering some sort of 'yeah' statement. Weird kid, he was. "Come over here!" She motioned to the table, where the rest of the rangers were talking.

            "Is it… Is it alright?"

            "Yeah! Of course!" Izumi said, going right over to Kouichi, a big grin right on the (due to some odd coffee-soda she drank) hyper teen's face. She draped an arm right over Kouichi's shoulder, either totally ignoring how much she just scared the black-haired teen, or completely not caring; most likely, the latter. "Come on, we're a team now! We may as well act like team members!" That statement, however, seemed to ring badly with the other members. "Right, guys?"

            "I guess so…" Hikari said, sounding unsure of herself. She played with of the two sections of hair by her face, looking away from Izumi's face. "Even so, we really know nothing about each other…"

            "Except Daisuke, which really is good enough for me." Jen said, sounding rather disgusted as he spoke.

            "Well, I love you too, Lee!" Daisuke snapped, getting up at the table rather harshly. Kouichi, automatically, stood between the two boys, trying to calm them down.

            "Come on, guys… No reason to start fighting now, is there?" He said, desperately trying to fan off both tempers. This really didn't bode well for DejiRanger, if everyone was going to start fighting so soon, especially the leader himself. Daisuke turned to Kouichi.

            "Well, I have plenty good enough reasons! Ever since he met me, he's treated me like shit! This jackass has punched me, treated me like some useless assistant, and basically been acting like I shouldn't be here!" Daisuke shouted to Kouichi, startling the poor teen. His glare fixed onto Jen, who didn't even get up from his seat. "And you… Boy, you're one hell of a jerk! I'm not even sure how any of your former teammates could stand you!"

            "Well, I didn't hang around psychos like you back from where I come from. Tell me, did you intimidate all of your former teammates or did you just beat them into submission?" Jen said his voice icy and rather harsh.

            "And what about you?! What made the rest of your team want to stick around with you, or are they just as spoilt as you!?" The look that Jen shot to Daisuke could easily be explained as 'No one talks of my friends that way'.

            "Fine! Fine, you know what? I don't care! I'm obvious not suited to be a part of this team." Hikari looked over to him, rather surprised at the outburst, but he continued, "Look, I really don't care about this. Quite frankly, I see none of you as team members. You may be nice people, very kind. But I am in no real desire to see any of you as fellow Rangers." He got up, walking out of the vending room as he spoke, "The only Rangers I see as teammates, Orimoto, are currently in Okinawa."

            "…" Daisuke fumed quietly, before turning to the other Rangers. "I really don't know what his problem is… You know what? He's nothing more then a brat."

            "He's more than a brat, you know." Hikari muttered, sounding rather annoyed. She looked at her can half-heartedly, before tossing the remains into the garbage. "You didn't recognize the last name Lee?"

            "Huh?" Daisuke asked, rather confusedly. "You mean there's something important about that?" Nearly everyone in the room fell to the ground, in outstanding shock. Izumi sat in silence, her face with the same confusion as Daisuke. Outside of the room, Jen nearly fell over too. He thought about returning back into the room, to apologize for being so quick of temper… Wow, could Daisuke be any denser?

            "Idiot… You mean you don't remember the Founders of the police?" Hikari asked. Jen stepped away from the wall. Guess it wasn't hard for them to figure out that much about of him, what with his last name and hair color… Really, how many blue-haired Lees were running around Tokyo? He walked off, shoulders slumped over in defeat.

            Now they were going to think his earlier attitude was the by-product of being spoiled as a child in the services. It wasn't due to any of that… He just missed Ruki and Takato badly… And Ruki probably still hated him now, for leaving… Jen decided to go check up on the Zord construction. It wasn't slated to finish for another couple of days, but at least it would do some good to see Terriermon through all this.

--

            The computers and circuitry of the dimly light laboratory flicked with the eerie qualities of life, as the tube in the room oozed with life. The water did its charm, slithering throughout the creation, and revitalizing it, strengthening it. From what she could see, in the case, the creature would soon grow to multiple times the size it was before, in sheer minutes. Metal parts flanked its arms, back and face, concealing the embryonic beast's eyes from any sort of view. A mechanical whirling could be heard, the heartbeat of the behemoth within the glass case. Arukenimon glanced to the tube, glancing at rate of growth within this one. Barely an hour ago, it floundered and nearly died in the air… Soon, by this rate, it would be able to exist outside of the tube. The behemoth would continue to grow, at this accelerated rate, until it reaches the expected height of four stories.

            "So… Watcha' doing, Arumi?" Arukenimon swiveled around her chair, to stare directly into the face of the rather hideous man-like creature behind her. She scowled, the purple frames of her sunglasses tinted to an insidious glare with the lights of the nearby monitors.

            "Never call me that name, you menace. It is only due to you being why I even exist that I have not killed you yet, but my patience wears thin." She looked to the clipboard in her hands, before turning her attention back to the tube. Perhaps, if she refused to acknowledge him, he'd go away.

            "Aw, Arukenimon, don't you like me anymore?" He asked, his tone a rather teasing one. Then, his mind shifted to another thought. "Of course, you've never liked me too much… After all, you did ask to use me for Target practice, after you were," he scoffed a little, "Born. Or is it born again?"

            She didn't respond, acting as if the constant bubbling and gurgling noises of the embryonic beast were twice as informative as the bandaged moron in the long coat could ever hope to be. Perhaps that thought was correct, though; the noises doubled suddenly. In less than four hours, the behemoth would be born, and would be capable of damaging, perhaps even destroying that insipid building. Such a wonderful little thought… Perhaps, if she was lucky, BlackMetalGreymon would step on him and squash him like the insect he was. Her mind turned to a little daydream of such a thought… Toss a couple of Rangers down there too, for an added crunch, and to add a puddle of red.

            "Ah… Ah, I see what you're doing, Arukenimon!" Mummymon said, waggling his finger at the white-haired woman. "You're just going to ignore me until I get to my point and leave you be! Well, I am so ashamed of you, treated a fellow Psuedomon like some sort of servant messenger, who's only purpose is to tell you messages! Why, it gives me half the mind to not tell you when Lord Oikawa's scheduled the attack!" He said. Arukenimon's face became rather still and stoic, rather chiseled in both expression and beauty.

            "… Repeat that." She commanded, as she placed the clipboard onto a nearby table, the data being lit from the light of the tube of demonic life. She stood to face him, a much smaller and more petite figure compared to him. Nevertheless, she exuded a sense of superiority over the man-like creature, a dominance that could be described as beastly or even malevolence.

            "Should I dare tell you? After all, you didn't care about what I said before. Didn't even notice me when I spoke… Why should I even try to tell you about when Lord Oikawa intends to attack the Digital Police HQ?" He acted innocent, as he spoke, smirking rather proudly as he turned a bit away.

            "…" He dared to mock her. This insolent idiot dare even tempted her… Arukenimon glowered, grabbing Mummymon's collar harshly. She pulled the large man-like creature down to her level, so that they made eye contact. All he did was grin in the same goofy way. "You better obey me; otherwise you will regret it…"

            "Aw, Arukenimon, you know I can't regret anything you do to me!" His yellowed and misshapen teeth stuck out of his face, as he spoke, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "And besides… If you kill me, I can't tell you anything, and you know me!"

            "That doesn't prevent me from ripping off one of your ears with a…"

            "Seven in the evening." He blurted out, rather calmly. Arukenimon paused for a moment, before letting go of his collar. The man-like beast adjusted his suit, smoothing out the little crinkles and lines, before repeating what he said. "The attack shall happen at seven, on the dot. Then, we invade the Headquarters and get the code. Following that, Lord Oikawa intends on having us use the monster you've created—What was it again, dear, BlackMetalGreymon?—and destroy the HQ." To emphasize his point, Mummymon punched his hand quite hard, the slap of skin resonating through the room.

            "Damn." Arukenimon muttered. "BlackMetalGreymon's not due for another five hours, at least. There's no way he'd be ready in time for the attacks…"

            "Well, he shouldn't be on the offensive for a while, at least dear!" Mummymon said, wagging that finger of his once again. Arukenimon started imagining the gruesome death once again, while he continued, "Really, all we need, right away is some of those Zombie-Digimon-thingies."

            She frowned, biting the bottom lip a little. "One, they are not 'Zombie-Digimon-thingies'. They don't even look like Digimon, they're Dead-Core." Then, her mood suddenly switched to one of interest. Nothing brightened her mood more than the creation of something new and invigorating. With the Dead-Core, she could amass dozens of them, with little effort, and none of the precious water needed. Sure, it would detract time from her observations of BlackMetalGreymon… But it did good to take a little break from work, every once in a while. "As for the second, you may have an idea there… The tube will finish with the subject, once we've gotten the code… From there, we no longer need the Ranger Headquarters. In fact," Arukenimon smirked, "it would be the perfect display of our power, to destroy those miserable mongrels."

            To the side, the tube boiled and bubbled, a light high-pitched growling could be heard. The growl, similar to sound of a rabid animal, rumbled through. If someone was to look into the tube where the beast laid, one would see one of the metallic claws stroke at the glass, as if to say "Let me free… release me". The beast looked up. It's eyes were invisible under all of the metal of the helm, save for two glowing points of light, staring a hole through the glass and anything else they came in contact in.

--

            These… These under qualified morons, if you could even call them that! They cared nothing for their work, Jen realized, watching horrified from the window overlooking the Zord reformation. None of these technicians knew what they were doing; nothing on even medicating the poor monsters. Surely, no situation could be as dire as weapons artillery in exchange for forgoing on care for the Digimon?

           He felt very sick, just watching this, and had to turn away. However, even that could do no good for him. The blares, screeches, and clanging still rang out into the hallways… He assured Takato and Ruki that Guilmon and Renamon would be safe, and could be pieced together in an easy-going fashion… Were they rushing with those two as well? No… They couldn't… But why so much callousness for Terriermon and these ones, in the rebuilding process? A sudden loud shrill scream pierced the air. He covered his ears tightly, slowly sliding to the ground into a rolled up position on the ground.

The industrial whirl of mechanics deafened out any other noise in the hallways, making even the simple task of walking through the room or working on the machines. Even with the heavy amount of soundproofing, and the thick, double-paned windows, did little to cover up the noise. Hikari could hear the ruckus from the floor under this one.

            Never before did Tailmon need these sorts of modifications. Ever since she was a cadet, Hikari worked with the same group, with the same people, and only with one minor alteration done on the Zords, as a member left a few years ago. Now, Tailmon would get a complete overhaul, including an operating system that corresponded with her new Ranger form, DejiRanger.

            Really, this all seemed like needless amounts of work. Hikari, usually, didn't act lazy or held sloth (or any sin) in good regards. However, the whole idea of switching everything she'd known to be her life had, essentially, been stripped from her in the past week. If nothing else, they could've given poor Tailmon some more time. As soon as she got the call, the poor Digimon got shipped off to here.

            There was a howling noise, one of great pain. Hikari winced, clutching her ears, as it continued on, passing a minute, two minutes, before finally silencing for some time. She stood in the hallways, confused about what that horrific noise was. As she walked through the halls, she could see someone by the glass-paned windows, curled up into a ball on the ground. The familiar blue hair stood out, reminding her who this was. "Jen? What happened to Terriermon?"

            He didn't question her, on her abilities, only because his mind was clouded, mostly from the blares and sirens around them. Something else was off too… Another thing stood out. That scream she heard just now. The scream had to be the little dog-bunny… "I don't know what's wrong". Hikari said. "I don't know why they're doing this."

            "…" Jen looked up to her, both of them suddenly wincing at the sound of a power-drill being used in the background. A long list of cusswords, most of which sounding Germanic in origin, drowned out some noise, as did something that sounded a cat yowling. Hikari immediately looked to the floor, her eyes brimming with terror and guilt themselves. "What do you mean?"

            "I'm sorry; I'm trying to understand the team… They don't know why they're doing this either, except this is urgent orders, but they're all very…" She trailed off, the cat screeches, "they're all very sorry, and they mean nothing bad!" She clutched her own ears, curling into a fetal position on the ground. "I wish I could say more on their behalf, but they're not incompetent and they're not vicious monsters either!"

            "Hikari…" The noise was beginning to hurt his ears, as did all of the pressure he had to keep onto them, so that the eardrums wouldn't start bleeding. Carefully, he took Hikari by the hand and pulled her onto her feet and out of the hall as quick as he could, while supporting her carefully. "It's really better if we don't blow our own eardrums out!" He said, or at least tried to. He wasn't sure if she could hear him, but her face still kept a downward look to the floor.

            As they entered the elevator, Jen pressed the first random floor button he could find, sending the small enclosed space going up. The noises from the reformation room gradually silenced, as they rode away from the room. Hikari still remained silent, keeping her hands over her face and her body hunched over as if she would just collapse. She didn't take her eyes off the floor, even if her eyes were still wild and unseeing. "… You can talk now, if you want." Jen didn't dare question here on what she was talking about, at least not yet. The brunette girl didn't look nearly in the right state of mind, and interrogating her would not help matters.

            "… I can't explain…" Hikari said, her voice nearly a whisper. "I know you want answers… But I can't give them right now… All I can say is that people can't lie to me, it never works."

            "I don't want anything from you, or any answers," he said, trying to convince her. Her response… It went along with what was on his mind. But she couldn't have known what he was… Jen shook the thought out of his head. "I just want you to calm down, and to relax."

            "You want to know why I know what you're thinking." Hikari said, not missing a beat. "You don't understand how I keep doing this, but you don't want to make me more upset, so you're not asking right away. I told you Jen, people can't lie to me. I always know when I'm being lied to." She looked up, her eyes once again clear. There was something else in her gaze though. If Jen didn't know any better, he'd swear her pupils looked unusually small, perhaps even too small. Her eyes also seemed to be slightly tinted, from the red-brown of before to reddish pink. "They're pink, aren't they?"

            "Pink?" Jen asked. She probably meant her eyes, he thought. Just thinking that gave her a reaction, he noticed, as she averted her eyes.

            "I though so…" Hikari said. "You probably shouldn't think about it too much… I know they look weird like this. It's part of the powers." Another question popped into his mind, but he struggled to stifle it down. Either way, she realized what she just said. "I can't tell you anything else about them… I'm so sorry I couldn't answer your questions."

            The elevator came to a sudden stop, as it hit the floor that Jen chose. Hikari bowed to him, before dashing out of the elevator, not even looking where she went. He probably realized what she was talking about before, and what the eyes meant. Stupid Hikari, she thought to herself, you just have no control over what you do, huh? You can't even keep yourself from reading all of the minds of everyone in there! Couldn't even keep yourself from reading Tailmon's mind, could you?

            She knew what Tailmon thought of the whole process, up until now. She knew every thought, every shudder of pain she went through, in there. And yet, she couldn't hate what those men did to her… They didn't mean to cause any harm.

            Why couldn't she just stop seeing every side to everything? She wanted to hate them the same way Jen did, or as any of the other Rangers would; if they saw the way their partners were being treated, they would say vile things or think vile thoughts about them. They would treat them as cruelly as the technicians had done to their partners. Hikari slumped onto a wall, curling up once again.

            "… Niichan…" She said. It would do her no good, she knew, to wish Taichi was here… At least she composed herself enough not to just start crying right on the spot, even if she wanted to. There was someone else in the hallways, she realized. Looking up, she saw Ryo at few meters away, looking at her. His mind was a total blank for her, as if he just wasn't thinking anything, but the color white.

            He stared at her for a good long time. Getting up, Hikari bowed once again trying to make herself as mature and as composed as she could mustered. "Yagami Hikari, awaiting command sir!" She said, saluting him for added oomph. He just kept staring at her for a long time.

            "Tell me…" He said, after a very long time of staring at her. Hikari, who now felt rather confused and quite intimidated, nodded at him. His mind was still completely blank, but there was a slight wash of grey sometimes appearing in the whiteness. Was she no longer reading his mind? "Are you ChoRed's little sister? As in, Tai Yagami?"

           "Tai? If you mean Taichi, then yes…" Hikari said. His expression changed a little, looking a bit softer than previously.

            "Ah… That answers it. I do know you from somewhere before. Do you remember fighting with a group of Rangers called the ZeedRanger, when you were a little kid?" He asked. The blankness remained in his thoughts, preventing her from looking. Only one other person would do this, and even then he could hold it this long… Hikari nodded. Her eyes were slowly turning less pink, as her mind just faded down on its own. "Don't blame you for not recognizing me… You've never met me outside of uniform. I'm ZeedWhite."

            "ZeedWhite?" A distant set of memories started to play in her mind. A tall boy… A bit bigger than Oniisan, in a pure white uniform, who'd fought with them on some times… Was that right? "You're the boy with… CyberDraZord, correct?"

            "I see you remember, at least a little Hikari!" Ryo responded. She didn't know if the blankness in his mind remained, since her mind finally calmed itself. Hikari felt some relief with that. "Listen, sorry about being so harsh in there before with you and the rest of the guys…" He shrugged a little. "Hey, if I knew you were Tai's little sis, I would've tried being a bit nice-"

            "No need to apologize." She answered. He really was right on what he thought; they were all very dangerous, or at least she was. And Daisuke, from what she heard, but he at least could control when the guns went off and the like. "It's… It's pretty true."

            "Ah." He patted her on the shoulder, "Well, don't expect me to be easy on you, if this is the attitude you have. I'm only expecting the best from you, okay kiddo?" Then, he thought a little. "Or should I just call you Hikari? I mean, I don't want to offend you or anything."

            "I'd rather you call me Hikari." He seemed much calmer now, compared with how he acted in the conference room. This Ryo acted friendly and cheerful, a bit like… No, couldn't be like him. Hikari was looking too hard for some sort of link to home, she decided. Ryo nodded, as if to say 'alright then, kiddo', before walking away. Then, he just stopped. Turning right back to her, he handed her what appeared to be a pink badge, with the insignia of Digital police emblazoned onto it. "What's this?" she asked, looking at the various buttons and little add-ons attached to it.

            "That is your Transformation Badge. You use that to turn into your Ranger format, DejiPink." He said. "Most of the Rangers will be the same colors and ranks as they were in their old groups, at least. If you need to transform, please shout 'DejiRanger! Justice for Two Worlds' But please practice with this first; it's still a bit of a prototype design." He rubbed the back of his head, while sounding slightly embarrassed. "The suits are rather poorly designed… And I'm not even sure if the uploading system will work correctly or not."

            "Alright… I'll practice as soon as I can, Mr. Akiyama…"

            "Ryo." She looked at him. "I'm only nineteen. I'm not close to being a mister yet." The older teen gave Hikari a little grin, before turning away. She looked at the small handheld transformer.

            It looked ornate enough… The etching on the badge itself reminded her of the Digital Police symbol, a small Culumon hopping out of a D. The various lights on the bottom of the badge blinked on and off, repeating the same rhythm continuously. Still, the thought most on her mind had nothing to do with her transformer, but on what she thought before. Now that Ryo was gone, as she stood in the hallway, she couldn't recall them once again.

--

            The Digital Police headquarters looked best at night, most people of Tokyo would say. At night, the pristine, metallic white walls of the building looked a bit surreal, as if they emitted their own light onto the street. The windows, designed to look red, blue, green, yellow and black in different places, all gave off their own radiant glow, as lights inside the building were turned on, making the building glow like a massive nightlight. The surrounding foliage and shrubbery, all chosen by architects, added a feeling of tidiness and even, according to some officials, some integrity to the surrounding area. As people walked by, the building gave off a sense of ethereal calm, a small little point of piece and protection in a world totally wrought with evil and insanity.

            Oikawa felt only a little guilty about having to destroy it. Then again, they were asking for it; the red jaguar had been parked not even half a block away from the building, with both him and dear Arukenimon sitting here this whole time. Not one Ranger or policeman even bothered walking over to ask him why he'd parked there. Heck, the worst he got was a ticket from some meter-maid who drove by. Perhaps they deserved everything Reaper Five planned. He sipped the black coffee absentmindedly, not even noticing the beverage was now ice-cold. "So… The one you've created, BlackMetalGreymon, is not due for a couple of hours, correct?"

            Arukenimon nodded, barely looking up from the laptop she typed on. "He's right in the trunk. As soon as it's completed, the beast will rip out, and destroy the car along with it. Then, it will grow at an exponential rate, before finally becoming as large as the base itself. By that time, we'll have the code, and we'll be on the way home."

            "Still, we do have something ready for an attack… How many of those Dead-Cores did you create anyway, dear?" He only pried in her affairs at the last minute. Perhaps it served not to be true prying, but a casual remind to make sure everything was in place. After all, he wouldn't be very happy if all of the careful planning became completely undone, just because she underestimated something.

            "More than a sufficient number; close to two-hundred, in fact." She said, the computer's screen changing. An internet browser popped up, the computer screen glowing a bright red from the images on it, as a time counter attached onto it. She stopped typing, as the counter blinked, coming down its final minute.

            "Now, you and Mummymon both remember the plan, correct?" He asked, placing the coffee down. He took out a suitcase by his side, handing it to the woman with white hair.

            "There's no need to treat me like a small child." Arukenimon said, her voice containing some exasperation, as she placed the laptop on the car's dashboard. She turned it away from the two of them, letting the screen face the window, as the countdown hit forty-five seconds.

            A man and a woman walked by from the building holding hands. The pair heard of the Ranger Headquarters endearing nightly qualities and intended to make a night of it. As they watched the building, they paid little heed to the red jaguar in the background, even with the odd red computer screen attached. They merely waltzed around, in a dreamy, dazed stance.

            Oikawa watched the pair, rather disgustedly. These two only cared about each other and themselves; they flaunted their own dreary reality into everyone else's faces, parading around lust and sexual energy, and claiming that to be love. These two fools, these ignorant children couldn't understand such a complex concept. He clenched his hand, forgetting the cold coffee still in it. The thin cardboard cup broke, showering his clothes with a wet, dark stain.

            Arukenimon looked over to him, then to the pair of star-struck idiots, right in view. She checked her own watch, while patting him on the shoulder. "They shall not last long… At least, I highly doubt they will. Even the rangers have trouble against my pets; I doubt these two will have any chance."

            He said nothing, as he gritted the cup. He didn't even put it down, as he broke through the cheap material to his own exposed flesh, and proceeded to dig his nails into his hand. Selfish children; selfish children fated to create their own set of children, and to raise them to be as selfish as himself… Ruining his dream, leading him to this whole plot…

            The computer started to beep quite loudly, a chain of rings and tones sounding off. The computer began to rock and shake, as the car began to shake and bang like a low-rider in a ghetto neighborhood. Instinctively, the pair hopped out of the car, as the front window-pane shattered. The computer shook and jerked, as the browser opened, spewing forth an ungodly creature from its depths.

           The couple suddenly turned from their embrace, turning to see something horrific. The beast, a plain looking creature, with no face, a slim white and blue body, and two elongated scythes, gave no noise, except the sound of latex rubbing against itself as it moved. It flexed its body, slowly curling up into an attack position. The couple stared in horror at the monster, the boy positioning himself in front of the girl. "S-Stay back, you!" He shouted, the fear in his voice overshadowing any sort of courage he tried to muster.

            The beast merely looked up to him with an eyeless face. It moved its arms, exposing the clean, sharp blades of the scythe arms. To its side, two more beasts suddenly hopped out, rolling into the same position. Then, another pair of beast hopped out, the number steadily increasing. The couple both shook with fear, as the boy took the girl's hand. He started to run, only to see a set more of the things, all holding up the scythe-arms up, and ready to strike.

            The screams of the couple, along with a terrible, somewhat squishy sound could be heard. Arukenimon, for having little interest in watching the internal organs of the humans, turned away. Even if she liked red, she didn't enjoy seeing so much, especially as they stained her beloved Dead-Cores. Oikawa, however, seemed totally oblivious. He went back into his usual, dreamy trance, as the screams purged the night.

--

            One by one in the Ranger center, the five DejiRanger transformers went off, ringing obnoxiously for a few moments. Daisuke took out his communicator, trying to figure out how to activate it. He pushed at buttons and lights haphazardly, before Izumi, who was standing by him, merely flipped up the badge to expose a tiny screen. "… I could've done that." He said, before looking to the message.

            "Bad news guys! We're going into combat!" Ryo said, "The Reaper Five are attacking right now! Nothing else we have is going to be a match for them, at this rate! All of you, head out to the front of the building, and stop their forces from entering!"

            "Wait! Hold on, Ryo!" Izumi said, trying to slow down the anxious brunette in his rant. "Who's the Reaper Five? You didn't mention anything like that in the briefing meeting?"

            "Really?" He said, sarcastically. "Well, I'm sorry, it must've slipped my mind, Orimoto! Now, all of you head out there right now, and transform! All of Ranger Headquarters is counting on you guys!" With that, the screen shut off. Both Daisuke and Izumi looked at each other, before Daisuke took Izumi's hand. Immediately, she slapped him.

           "I can walk perfectly fine on my own! I don't need to be lead around like a little girl!" She replied, before dashing off. Then, she dashed right back. "Alright, where's the front of the building."

            "I'll take you there, but you need to promise me one thing, Izumi." Daisuke said, as he rubbed his face. That welt would remain at least for a little while… Man, something about her reminded him of those Guido-women, from Hoboken. Scared the living crap out of him worse than anything that Reaper Five group could have. "Don't slap me anymore. Please?"

            "Fair enough-whoa!" She said, as Daisuke suddenly took her arm again, and rushed down at an alarming rate, going speeds she didn't know people to. Before she knew it, they were gliding down flights of stairs, racing by as if they rode a car or something. Never in her life did she ever go so fast, with no machinery needed. It was like… A ranger power? She'd never saw anyone but Kouji with something like that, and that was much different from this!

            They suddenly stopped. For a moment, Izumi went flying, before Daisuke grabbed her waist and pulled her close. "Hold on!" he said, as he tried to get both of them still. They stood like that for a second, him trying to catch his breath, her horrified that he had her midriff right in his face. Then, he just dropped her to the ground. Daisuke's breath, still somewhat rough, finally calm down enough for him to talk. "Sorry… About… That… Had to- To catch up with rest…"

            "Well, you caught up with them alright. So much so that they aren't even here!" Izumi snapped, angrier about the midriff thing than the lack of any other rangers in the HQ lobby. The room, save for the two of them, was completely deserted, as the sounds of claws rubbing against the windows and the front door could be heard. Although the windows were blurred and tinted, for more stylistic purposes, the shadows of Dead-Core stood in front of them. The scratching noises grew increasingly worse, going from light clawing noises to a cat attacking a chalkboard.

            "Well, it looks like we have no choice…" Daisuke said, as he went into a front stance. He held out his badge, a bright red with the number 01 engraved on it. "Looks like we'll need to fight!"

            "Are you crazy?!" Izumi shouted. No way in hell could they stand up to those things! The goggle-headed lunatic still breathed hard from running down the stairs from before, and she was… Fine, she was a crap fighter. And these things had scythes! How would they manage on their own!

            "Yeah, Daisuke! Leave some for us!" Izumi and Daisuke turned. There stood Hikari, Jen, and Kouichi. Hikari smiled, holding out her own transformation Badge. "I want to stop these things too!"

            "Hikari, you're very enthusiastic about this…" Kouichi said, taking out his own transformation Badge, a blue variant of the tool. "Before, you said you wanted to go home, and now you want to fight."

            "Well, a girl can change her mind…" Hikari said, sounding a bit sheepish. Izumi shook her head a little, before taking out her own transformation Badge. Wait. Why was this Badge white? She's should be DejiPurple, shouldn't she? Well, they probably switched her colors.

            "So Jen, ready to fight these creeps? Or are you going to bitch me out again?" Daisuke said, a mockingly cheerful tone to his voice. Jen shot him a glare.

            "I don't feel the need to rebel against you now… There are more important things to worry about than some measly rivalry." Yeah, right now, Jen thought. But you do anything stupid, or get anyone else in the team injured, I will not hesitate to take out my blasters and shoot your ass… Something told him to suppress such violent thoughts, as he glanced to Hikari she didn't seem to notice though… Jen took out his transformation Badge, a bright green version of the usual one, before going into position. "We'll save the problems for off the battlefield."

            "Man, you're one weird nut. First, you yell at me, and then call the fight measly. Can't you just flat out say you hate me or somet-"

            "Guys?" Izumi said, as she pointed to the windows and doors. The glass, a very thick variant of normal glass that could even stand up to bullets, was cracking under the pressure from the arms of the beasts. "I think transforming now would be a really good idea."

            "… Yeah. You're right." Daisuke said, as everyone shifted into front stances like him, the badges being held out in front of them. "Transform! Red Ranger!"

            "Transform! Blue Ranger!"

            "Transform! Green Ranger!"    

            "Transform! Pink Ranger!"

            "Transform! White Ranger!" With the last comment, they held up their badges to the sky, simultaneously. "DejiRanger! Justice for Two Worlds!" There was a long pause, as the crackling noises grew horribly worse. Then, Daisuke tried doing so again, shouting the transformation phrase. Jen just took his badge down, and tried pressing a few buttons.

            "It's not working!" Izumi shouted, rather terrified. This couldn't be right… Even at only two months of training, she knew that the transformation should take a few seconds. The cracking of the windows started to become a shattering. The Dead-Cores would bust in at any minute!

            "How could this happen?" Hikari asked, more to herself than to anyone else. She tried swatting the Badge on the back, to just see if it was a minor short in the system or not.

            "What do we do now?" Jen said. This boded very poorly, and he knew it. Daisuke was the red leader, wasn't he? He'd need to think up of something fast, or they were all screwed. One of the windows broke open, as a scythe, stained red from some previous fight, busted through the window. Izumi screamed a little at that, while Kouichi, instinctively, positioned himself in front of her.

            "What do mean, 'what do we do now'?" Daisuke only had one answer he could provide, and he knew the answer would be crazy, at least to the rest of the Ranger. With that, he got back into a fighting stance. "We fight them off, in civilian form. Nothing else we can do now."

            The windows finally shattered, sending out a flurry of the white-bodied monsters, as they viciously swung their limbs around, sightless to what they would hit.


	3. Episode Three: A Vicious Assault is Made...

Fantasuchikku Senshi DejiRanger Episode Three: A vicious assault is made! Why won't anything work right!?

(Disclaimer and Author's notes: Sentai and Power Rangers (Specifically used: Abaranger and Dekaranger) are the property of Toei, Bandai and Disney/Saban. The same holds true for Digimon. I did not make any money for this, nor do I intend on making money on this. Also, to SandO, I've only seen a couple (like one or two) episodes of actual Sentai, but I'm interested in seeing more. Right now, my knowledge lies in Power Rangers and anything I've read online. And thanks for positive feedback, everyone; a special thanks to my beta readers, who I'm not going to name as I don't know who's a reader at this point. Yes, I am that ditzy! Give a round of sound for them anyway, y'all! And someone please do me a mega-big favor? Can someone tell me how to write an action sequence in a semi-pleasing way to read?)

No way. No way in hell. This could not be happening. The moment the Rangers went to transform, the computer just totally... Blue-Screen of Death-ed on him! As he sat there, waiting for the rangers to transform, the whole screen crashed, only to come back up a minute later, the entire system flashing signs of computer fatality. "No!" Ryo screamed, as he slammed the monitor with his hands. "Rangers, come in! Rangers, come on, please come in!"

The PC sputtered and sizzled, as a noxious smell filled the air. The wires were shorting up something awful, and probably were sparking right in the machine, Ryo thought, as he tried to bang the machine back into reality. In vain, he banged out several combinations of keys, as the smell of smoke and burning plastic filled the room; not that he noticed though. The smells were the last thing on his mind

If the PC went down, the Rangers were royally screwed. Now, not only couldn't get in touched with them, but they could... Use the... "Rangers, for god's sake, come fucking in!" Then, the monitor went dead completely. He started to go into a long line of swear-words, while trying to restart the machine. Nothing could be any worse than this.

"Mr. Ryo." He turned to see Rei, holding the cord to the computer in her hands. He dashed right over to her, just restraining himself from slapping her something fierce. "It's not going to do anyone any good to just end up burning Headquarters, as you're trying to contact the Rangers on that bit of rubbish." She motioned over to the computer, as a thin streak of smoke billowed from the CPU. "Look, try to act sensibly about this."

He stood still for a few seconds, before turning to the door in a rush. "I'm going out there." Ryo said, as he took a coat from a nearby chair with him. A meaningless gesture, as Rei noted.

"And what do you expect to do?" She said, rolling over to the front of the door, blocking his exit. "If you haven't forgotten, you retired your Ranger powers last year. What do you expect to do, become filet of human so the Rangers don't have to?"

"I need to do something, Rei!" Ryo said, trying to shift through the doorway. With every movement he tried to make, she ended up blocking him again. He sure as hell couldn't climb over her either. "I can't just wait until they get killed by some ex-Ranger's little pets!"

"Well, then stay here and help me!" She shouted back. He calmed down for a moment, even if he tapped his foot on the floor nervously, like a jack-rabbit stuck in a wire cage. "Look, right now we should try and find out what went wrong with the computer systems; if we can figure that much out then we can get the Rangers to transform, or at least get communications back up with them." He seemed to deflate at Rei's comment. Ryo's shoulders slumped over, as his arms became rather limp. "It'll do no good to just go down and get yourself killed. You're not a Ranger anymore, and you need to remember that."

"What can I do though?" His voice sounded lost and timid, a strange sort of melancholy he usually never had involving this job. For the past two years, all he wanted to do was to retire. Now, however, as he thought of the deaths of all of the DejiRanger, by the hands of that Oikawa guy's minions, he regretted giving back his transformer.

Rei turned him over to the PC, pointing to it as she did. "You're good with computers, from what I've heard. If that's true, go and check the system. I'm going to call a specialist, and see if we can get a spare system for the time being. He nodded numbly, as he moved over to the remains of a CPU. Nothing else he could do at this point...

--

Hordes of the red-stained Dead-Core, each swinging their front, arm-like claws, crashed through the window, at first rolling over into a graceful tumble before repositioning into attack position. Izumi stepped back, horrified at what Daisuke was asking. "You've got to be kidding me..." She said, as she resisted the urge to just jet up the stairs. No! She couldn't run now! Her team might need her! Even if there's always a chance she might end up as just cannon fodder... "How do we stand a chance against these guys?"

"Well, only one way to find out..." Daisuke said, more like shouted, as one pounced for him, left scythe swinging. He ducked, just missing a slash to his stomach as he did so. The beast had left its head open in the attack, a very costly mistake, as the goggle-head kicked it squarely in the space where a face should be. The beast twitched a little at the attack, before falling back, making a loud thud. He blinked in surprise, before feeling a slice of wind graze his ear.

"Watch out!" Jen shouted, as he slide a leg right under the Dead-Core beside Daisuke, knocking the white-bodied creature off its feet. The monster swung its arms in the air wildly, attempting to slash the blue-haired boy's leg off. It made no vocal noise, but the body of the beast made the noise of latex rubbing tiles as it fell to the ground. Two more attempted to strike Jen, each raising an arm straight into the air. Instinctively, Jen rotated his body, repositioning his legs to face the new enemies, before kicking both, using both of his legs and supporting himself on his arms.

"... Thanks!" Daisuke shouted back, very surprised that Jen would even bother to save him from that. He lunged at another two Dead-Cores, performing a sharp kick to the jaw of one of them. The second one, as it lifted its arm to strike, ended up getting a sharp elbow into the gut. If the monster had eyes, they'd be watering at this point. Daisuke turned to the rest of the group, as he smashed both monsters with a double elbow to where the rib-cage should be.

"I think I've got it!" Kouichi said, as three rushed him. One knocked him off of his feet, using the blunt end of the scythe-arm, before attempting to stab his head with the sharp edge, still dripping from some prior person. The black-haired boy shifted his head to the left, narrowly missing being stabbed in the face. As the Dead-Core attempted again, Kouichi slipped his legs beside the beast's face, before, using his arms as support, flipping over, slamming the monster face first into the tile. He got up on his feet, as quickly as he could manage. Two were still swinging at him wildly, as he found himself having to shift out of the way and dodge precariously.

One slash hit his shoulder extremely fierce, causing a short cry from him. However, as soon as he called out, he silenced. The Dead-Core never expected him to jab it in the face, then in the stomach, with his free hand. The second never expected the side-kick right to the neck either, a kick that sent it sprawling on the ground, rubbing at it's throat the same way a person may hold their neck after feeling such a blow.

"Bad boy." Kouichi's voice turn as cold as tundra, as he grabbed the Dead-Core he'd punched by the neck, before slamming his head right into the creature's non-existent face. The monster fell to the ground, making the same odd noise of latex rubbing as the others. Then, his attention turned to the Dead-Core still on the ground, as it started to get a sense of what was going on again.

The black-haired boy gave a grim smile, before lifting his leg high in the air and swinging it down, heel-first, into the belly of the beast. The monster twitched a little, as it collapsed. As a fourth, silently, rushed to slice his head off behind him, Kouichi merely grabbed the blade, ignoring the blood and pain gushing from his hand. With a fluid motion, he pulled the scythe down, pulling the Dead-Core's head close enough to give one hard, sharp punch to the face. The beast fell off to the side, flying back in a rather exaggerated way. "You should pick on someone your own size."

"Speaking of that... Someone help me!" Izumi shouted, as she backed up into a wall. One Dead-Core decided to chase after the poor girl, locking her off into a corner. She backed up, cussing to herself that, if only she could use her new transformer, she wouldn't be in this situation. Instead, she'd be fighting back. At this point, however, there was nothing else she could do to fight against the things. Well, that wasn't true... She was a member of DejiRanger now! One of the elites! She must fight against them some time, especially since no one else seemed to be having much problem at this point. "Eat shoe, you Grim Reaper-wannabes!" She said, as she kicked one square in the ribs.

The Dead-Core stood still for a moment. Then, it rubbed the blunt edge of its scythe on its chest, as if the injury ached a little. "Crap..." Izumi said, as the Dead-Core turned attention back to her, contorting itself into an immediate attack position. The scythes went flying for her neck, only being blocked somewhat by her arms. Even that idea wasn't smart, as she gained a few deep gashes on her forearms, but it was better than being decapitated.

Izumi kicked at the Dead-Core's waist wildly, supporting herself mostly with the walls behind her. It did barely anything to the monster at first, before it suddenly stiffened up. The monster twitched a little, before falling off of her, holding its scythes to its stomach, as if she just kicked the wind out of it. "... I did it!" She said, while pumping an arm in the air, an action that she stopped as the pain seared in her arm. Before she knew it, she got flanked by two more Dead-Core, both of who slammed her to the ground by slamming her sides with a double kick.

As she turned over, she watched one slam a scythe into the ground. She gave a squeak of terror, as the second scythe came whizzing at her head. Then, it stopped, merely seconds before. Looking up, Izumi saw Hikari holding the arm of the Dead-Core, before she gave it a hard push, sending the monster into a back-flip. Hikari got into a back-stance, as the monster took a lunge at her. She grabbed the monster's arm, just below the scythe-hand, before pulling it close enough to side-kick it three times, once in the neck, once in the stomach, and once in the groin.

Izumi scanned the battle-field, worried about how much more of this they could take. At this time, Daisuke's portion of the fight was souring. At this point, his energy was totally drained, and he only fought on empty, using sloppy moves that were both easily dodged by the Dead-Cores and was countered, leaving himself a bloody mess. The poor boy would definitely collapse due to exhaustion at any point, as he struggled to keep himself from collapsing in the battle field. Jen too was left in such dire straights; as soon as he beat more off of himself, a large mass would rush him, not giving him enough time to breathe even.

Kouichi and Hikari seemed alright, both only suffering minor injuries. Even then, Kouichi's hands stained the pure white Dead-Cores with each attack. At this rate, the whole team would surely lose, and then there would be no one ready to fight against these things. Where on earth were any other Rangers? Was the base complete devoid of anything but executives and paper-pushers?

"Are you alright?" Hikari asked, turning back slightly to Izumi, as the monster rolled around on the ground a bit. She didn't notice the next one sneaking up on her, ready to strike as she stood there, or didn't seem to notice as the scythe came down.

"Look out!" Izumi screamed, as the scythe suddenly stopped, millimeters away from Hikari's skull. The beast seemed frozen in place, its muscles convulsing in a rather disgusting fashion. As the monster struggled, Hikari's eyes changed to a soft pink before the beast went flying into a wall, slamming hard enough to crack it. In similar fashion, several other Dead-Cores began flying around in such a manor, slamming into walls away from the boys.

As all of the Dead-Core lain on the floor, both silent and motionless, the Rangers began to move away, slowly. Kouichi, now back to his senses, clutched his bleeding shoulder; Izumi walked over to Daisuke, before giving the weakened teammate a shoulder to lean on. As the group moved away from the pile, Hikari only stood there, the whites of her eyes an unnatural pink. Had the girl suffered from shock or something? Jen walked to her side, followed by patted her shoulder softly.

"Hikari?" He asked, as he grasped her shoulders, shaking her a little. No response; Hikari only kept looking forward, staring at some inexistent force behind him. Her lips moved every so slightly, but it seemed less like an answer than it did merely seem like a nervous twitch. He shook her a little harder, only for the light pink of her eyes to start glowing like nightlights in a little kid's room.

"Jen," Kouichi said, confusedly, "What on earth are you doing?"

"She's not reacting; we can't leave her here by herself." He said, while motioning to the Dead-Core. Some were beginning to stir, flexing their muscles and scythe-hands involuntarily. Soon, they'd wake up and beat her all the way back to Osaka, or wherever she came from; and what if more came while they were waiting. "Hikari, if you can hear me, then please, don't take this the wrong way..." He hoisted her up, grabbing her legs to get a better grip. Or at least that's what he'd claim; it was more for the fact that, if he lifted her like this, she couldn't slap him as her hands would be to his back.

As soon at the group could, they dashed into an elevator, setting right to the same floor that Ryo was on previously and, most likely, would be. The machine hummed to life, escorting the group in silence to their destination. They remained in silence for a good moment, before Daisuke said "We're fucked, aren't we?"

"Daisuke..." Hikari said her tone a combination of chastising and drugged out of her mind.

"No, I'm not kidding." He said, sounding more serious than the group had come to know him in the past half a day. "Our transformation badges did nothing, and we just got royally wupped by the weakest thing these... Reamer Five-"

"Reaper Five, Daisuke." Izumi said, as she steadied Daisuke to the best of her degree. He acted delirious from the exhaustion and injuries from the battle, making him harder to steady than if he was acting normal. "They're the ones that we're fighting..."

"See, that's how little I know about them! When I can't even get the name of the guys who just tried to massacre me and some other people right, then it's not a good sign. Especially when I'm supposed to know them!"

"Well, what can we do about it?" Kouichi asked. Ryo and Rei obviously didn't want to talk about what was going on, not even giving a clear answer about anything except that Ryo really needed to train all of them. "It's not really in our business to pry..."

"That's exactly what we need to do though!" Izumi said, a bit louder than she meant to be. "

"Man, when we get back to Akiyama, I am so going to let him have it!"

"Daisuke..." Hikari's voice sounded a bit more annoyed and a bit clearer, as she tried to get the goggle-headed lunatic's attention.

"Hey, don't be such a spoil-sport Hikari... He really deserves all that he gets! I mean, he just sent us into battle with faulty transformation badges, and not even any idea what we were facing!" Daisuke punched his fist, "If anything, I'm going to go light on him!"

"..." She sort of hung there, silently. Right now, arguing with Daisuke was the last thing on her mind. But Ryo couldn't be a bad person... Even if she wasn't sure herself. His mind was totally blank, as if nothing was there to begin with. No... No, that's not the case. It was like something else barred her from seeing. And her mind still had a hard time processing the memory from before; whenever she tried to remember, it would come off blurry, foggy. Completely useless, in any sense of the word.

Izumi glanced over to Kouichi, for a few moments. Something kept on bothering her... Did he know? Kouji never mentioned his family... Perhaps he just never felt the need to. He probably never mentioned us to family either, she thought, as she stared at him, otherwise Kouichi would've surely recognized her at this point. Perhaps it was better to be unrecognized, considering her past, though. Not that she could hide it, at this point, and not certainly after the fight.

"Can you please put me down?" Hikari said. What on earth did she mean by...? Oh. Oops. Jen places her down, gently, as soon as he realized her wits came back enough for her to stand. For a few seconds, she sort of swayed back and forth, holding onto Jen's shoulder for support. Then she turned to Daisuke, first sizing him up, before talking again, "He didn't mean for this to happen, you know..."

"Ryo, you mean?" Kouichi asked, holding up his shoulder tightly. God was he going to need Tylenol and stitches after today... He'd also need to find out why Orimoto kept on staring at him. "Is there... Is there something wrong with me?"

"Huh?" Oh man, she thought, he noticed... "Well, it's no big deal... Just noticing you look a lot like your brother, you know?" He blinked a couple of times, at that. "You know, your brother Kouji?"

"No..." He replied confusedly, as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't have a brother... You must be mistaken." How could that be? But it couldn't just be coincidence... Kouichi looked just like him! Izumi looked down at the ground, mumbling some sort of reply, before the car rode into a moment of uncomfortable silence.

"I don't know what's in his head right now... But he's a friend of my brother's, so he couldn't mean any harm to us..." Hikari said quietly. At least two other Rangers nearly fell over right then and there, not due to injuries, but due to her own blind faith.

"Is that your criteria with people?! Whether or not they like your big brother?!" Izumi shouted, causing Daisuke to go into more spasms of pain. She apologized profusely for a second, before starting up again. "That's the craziest thing I've ever seen!"

"Ow!"

"Excuse me, but I have faith in my brother." Hikari sounded immensely offended, as she spoke. "He wouldn't trust anyone that would be out to harm someone, alright?"

"Well, I don't mean to make you angry..." Crap, now she did it. Two people already pissed with her, and another who just thought she was a weird... Izumi really wished she could be more careful; really, the idea of making everyone she was incompetent and an idiot really didn't appeal to her. "It's just that... Do you know him?"

"... Not exactly..." Hikari said, looking away from Izumi. "But I do know he and Taichi know each other. And Taichi would never trust anyone more dangerous than he was."

--

"Crap, crap, crap, crap..." Ryo had taken from yelling coherent sentences at the intercom system, to just cussing, as he pretty much completely pulled apart the main computer, in some vain attempted to reload and fix the whole damned system. As soon, as the Rangers tried to transform, the monitor just... Blue Screen of Death-ed on him! Damn machine is completely running on defunct information! He cussed some more, uttering a few phrases too bad to even put in the fanfic, as he took out a combination of more wires out, trying to find some combination of wiring that at least could work.

Rei, seeing the tangle of wires, decided a long time ago to call for a technician. Now, waiting for that McCoy girl, and offering Ryo some drinks that had no caffeine in them was all she could do. It would do no good to think darkly on what happened to the Rangers out there... Especially when she could do nothing more than just wait for any news, and make coffee until then. Sometimes, the role of being an assistant felt like being an over-glorified tea lady. "You having a good time, making a mess of things?" she said curtly, while glaring at him as he sat in the floor.

"Look, you want to help?" Ryo snapped. He bounced up to his feet, not noticing the sound of crunching as he stepped on a couple of mother-boards. "Then stop mocking me in my attempts at fixing this and help me, damn it! We don't even know if the Rangers are alright or even if they were able to transform, and you're sitting there glaring at me! Stop that, first off!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but when you act like an idiot and freak out, I will not cater to your insanity!" She shouted. She wanted to hop out of her wheel-chair, at that point, if only to just slap him in the face, to see if that would make him stop being so irrational. "Look, just wait for the professional to get here, and we can get the system working faster than having you standing here and try doing it yourself!"

"We do not have the time to wait!" Ryo shouted right back, "What if they're dead?! Can we really afford to wait a few minutes, just to wait for the technician to get here, when the Rangers could be in-"

"Hi Ryo," Hikari said, rather casually, as she peeked into the room.

"Hey, Hikari... Anyway, who knows what sorts of danger- The Rangers are back, aren't they?" Ryo asked, feeling like quite an outstanding idiot. Rei nodded, resisting the urge to gloat or to even say 'yeah, I told you so... By the way, you're standing on a mother-board'. The college dropout turned to the rest of the group, rubbing the back of his head rather awkwardly, "So, how was the fight?"

"Oh, it went pretty well..." With that, the Rangers entered the room, all looking rather more like something the dog dragged in, but not before attacking repeatedly, than the elite forces they were supposed to be. "Considering we nearly got killed. I'd say we did pretty well."

"What the hell happened out there, Akiyama!?" Daisuke shouted, while waving the transformation Badge for emphasis. Izumi nearly fell over, from his wild movements and jerks, "These things you gave us just shorted out right before we could even transform!"

Ryo looked to the ground, then noticing the fact he was standing on two of the mother-boards moved over a tad. "The... Computer fried, when all of you tried to transform at once." Ryo said, very quietly. "I tried to restart the computer, and reconfigure all of the information, but the machine short-circuited."

"It's not nearly a strong enough machine to even control transformation and the like... Even if the technician can get it back up and running," Rei said, looking over to the disassembled PC. The charred wiring, probably burned out from when the Rangers over-loaded it, melded with different motherboards and other connections, as a noxious smell, similar to melted army men, filled the room. "There's no way we can have any of you transformed in time to defend the HQ."

"Well, what are we supposed to do!?" Daisuke said, "We can't just stay here and wait until those wannabe Grim Reapers kill all of us."

"Dead-Core." Rei said. She paused, partially in thought, before adding, "Dead-Cores actually, as there's more than one of them."

"Wait a moment!" Izumi said. "You two haven't explained anything so far, besides we need training!"

"Yeah!" Daisuke said, before saying something rather outstanding, "I'm ranting about our bloody deaths, and you're correcting my grammar?! How am I supposed to know what those blade-hand things are called, anyway?" Jen nearly fell to his face, on that comment, as everyone else just stared at him oddly. "... What?"

"What he's trying to say..." Izumi said, while shooting a bit of a glance to him. "Is that, you two haven't told us anything about what Reaper Five or these Dead-Core things are. What's going on?"

On the mentioning of the Reaper Five, Rei turned pale. She clutched at the hand rests of the wheelchair, digging little claw-marks into the padding. Ryo, as he watched her reaction, wondered what caused her to react so violently to Reaper Five. "It's who's behind this..." Ryo responded. "The Reaper Five is a group, with the means and the resources to destroy the planet, right at their finger-tips. Unlike any other villain most of you have faced, this is not the run-of-the-mill monster who decided that earth would make a good vacation home; this is a human, just like any of us."

He glanced to each Rangers; Kouichi, at this point, was trying to bandage up his shoulder, as Jen helped him. Izumi set Daisuke into a chair, the boy finally recovering somewhat from the fight. And Hikari, still standing, stared at him and waited patiently for him to continue. "And I mean that from all sense of the word. The man, Yukio Oikawa, is a former member of the Rangers."

That, most certainly, caught their attention. Now, all eyes in the room were on him, save for one set. Rei wheel herself by the door, trying to see if McCoy was coming anytime soon. "He's one of the first eight Rangers, formally known as ProtoPurple."

"One of the first..." Even Izumi knew about the first eight Rangers... One of the first things a rookie learns too. Now, one was dead and two had gone permanently missing. Wait a minute... "If he's one of the founders, then he must know how a lot of Ranger codes and stuff, and a lot of the secrets too!"

Ryo nodded. "Yes... He's been using this to his advantage... Rumor has it that he intends on harnessing the powers of a very volatile digital force. Have any of you ever heard of the D-Reaper?"

Jen turned white, in that very instant. "No, that can't be... The HakkuRanger detained the D-Reaper back in Okinawa, not even a week ago. How can he harness it, if it's been captured, and reverted into its most primitive state?"

"It's only a rumor, at this point," Rei pointed out. "All we do know is that Oikawa is a danger not unlike anything we've faced because he knows everything to expect. He's a brilliant man, and knows how to use any information he has on us," she turned to everyone, looking each Ranger and Ryo in the eyes, "And I mean each one of us, to his own benefit."

"You seem to know a lot about this Oikawa..." Kouichi noted. Her eyes looked regretful when she spoke of him, and the expression on her face contorted to one of a possessive anger.

"Well, I should know this; as an assistant, I must tell you all what I can at this time." It wasn't the complete truth and she knew it. None of them suspected though, hopefully, except for Akiyama... He had to have realized she didn't tell him everything, but he seemed content with what he now knew, at least.

--

The poor lackeys never suspected a thing.

Late at night, most were looking forward to the time in which they could go home, to eat simple meals of curry, rice, or fish prepared by their wives and, in some cases, husbands, to see school-age children who'd ask if they saw any Rangers or Digimon that day and how cool their work was, and to just relax away from the stress of the job. Most of the Digital World's gates were shut for the night, save for one or two used for communications and the like. Even the Digimon in the room, other programmers for the gates or body-guards, had no thoughts on danger, but on how they'd get to peruse the human world soon and see things beyond their imaginations. None of them even suspected any sort of danger up until the door suddenly burst open.

A horrific figure stood right in the way, a massive spider with the torso of a bug-eyed woman with white hair, hissing quite loudly at the group. Snapping out of a stupor, the Body-Guard monsters lunged into attack.

Within seconds, two Panjyamon swung for her torso, aiming for the slightly elongated neck. They never expected her to grab the swords in mid-air as they swung, not even suffering a gash from the blades on her hands. With barely a twinge of effort, she pushed the blades back at the same time, sending the two Digimon flying into a nearby computer terminal.

"Imperfection... Callously created creatures, not even worth my time." The massive spider-woman growled. Her voice sounded dreadful to the ears, a grave and grainy sort of voice that rang closer to a bestial tongue than a human one. A flash of black and red flung itself at her, biting deeply into her arm. Gritting her teeth in pain, she looked at the beast, a Dobermon, as it made a strong effort in order to maul her arm to nothing. With a snap of the wrist, he went flying off similar in fashion to the prior icy lions, slamming hard into a nearby wall.

She glanced at her arm, noting the thick, nearly black ooze dripping from her veins. "At least one of you has some competence." She snarled, rubbing the limb. Then, her mouth gapes open, the bones of the jaw crackling and popping as she did so. "Acid Mist!" she screeched, as putrid, green mists blasted into the room. Everyone in the room, various weak-strength programmers and bodyguards alike collapsed at the scent of the noxious gases, several going into severe coughing fits as they fell over.

As they writhed on the floor, hacking and fainting from the noxious gasses, Arukenimon watched. Their desperate gagging, dizzy movements, all evidence on how weak they were... Perhaps she should show mercy on the dog, however. She clutched her arm, the congealed red liquid seeping from the wound. He did more to her than any of the others ever hoped to accomplish... Pity that he'd have to die, just like the rest, she thought, as she walked to a computer terminal, with all intentions to find a much needed source code. Hopefully, the last computer to log into the Dark-Ocean was not the one that just got destroyed by oncoming dog-like Digimon.

A good distance away, the red and black dog laid on his side. His limbs hung limply over the destroyed PC and table, his left back leg dangling precariously over the side of the table. His eyes were shut, as if he'd been knocked out. However, if one was to watch the leg of the dog-like monster, one could see the toes press on the table haphazardly. Although it seemed to be some sort of death knoll, he had a reason for doing as such.

Indeed, the reason soon became clear, as he pressed a hidden panel under the desk. A few seconds later, a high-pitched squeal rang through the building, setting forth a distress cry.

--

"Excuse me?" A young woman with platinum-blonde hair stood in the doorway, carrying a bag full of spare computer parts. "Is this Room 220?"

Rei wheeled over, taking a moment to bow, before she said "Yes, please come right in, Miss McCoy... I don't think you have enough equipment to fix the problem actually..."

"Oh, please just call me Alice! And if that's the case, we can always use an auxiliary system..." The technician looked at the rubble of the previous computer, burnt-out wiring, broken mother-boards, and all of that fun. "... Unless it's going to come back in that condition, of course."

"Well, most of that's my fault, actually." Ryo said, as he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"What did you do, attack the poor machine?" Alice asked, incredulously, as she picked up some of the cracked motherboards. "What, did you step on them?"

"I did?" He asked, flabbergasted. She held up one of the two motherboards, a clear crack running right through it. As if to make her statement clearer, Alice wiggled the motherboard, allowing both sides to start shifting in different directions from one another. "Oh... I guess I wasn't as careful as I should've been."

Alice shot him a sharp glare, before going on, muttering something rather dark about inept computer-users and goats. With that, he turned back to the Ranger, still blushing a bit. "We need to get you guys out there somehow..." He said, "Hey, do any of you have your old transformers?"

The rangers retrieved the older models of transformers, some sounding a bit questioning as they looked for their items. Each one took out an odd-shaped bit of electronics, before placing them on the table before Ryo and Rei. Both of their faces lit up, as Ryo took out a small screwdriver, one most likely meant for glasses. "I don't understand why you'd need these..." Jen said, "Most of them should be de-activated by now."

"Well, if we're lucky..." Ryo picked up a bright red object, similar in make and shape to a Wonderswan, and began to toy with it. After a few moments, the machine beeped into life, playing a few lines of some cheerful music. "Yes! They really are useless!"

"Hey!"

"Not the transformers..." Ryo held up the red transformer, the screen completely activated. "When you get transferred out, as some of you should know, they usually take apart the old transformers, to use the suits for new Rangers. However, either they never took in Daisuke's, or they did such a shoddy job of disabling it, that the Ranger-mode is still usable!"

"So..." Jen continued, "We can still use the old suits, at least for now, since they're still active." Thank god... Any ranger suit would be better than no suit at all, especially at this time. Ryo worked swiftly with each one, handing each transformer to their rightful Ranger. Now, they had to go finish off a quick battle...

Nearby klaxons on the walls began flashing, blaring an irritatingly high squeal into the room. Instinctively, everyone clutched their ears, as the noise softened slightly, at least to tolerable ear level. "What's going on!?" Izumi shrieked, as she winced from the noise. Her eardrums felt like they were bleeding now, and the bright white lights shone so bright that it made seeing something actually difficult.

"Trouble." Daisuke said, getting up from his seat. The shrill noise stopped bothering him after a moment, and he felt ready, or at least ready enough to fight! Even though he felt a wave of dizziness, as he stood up, he'd have to fight whoever this was.

"Even worse trouble than before." Hikari noted, as she took the cell-phone shaped transformer right from Ryo. "Something worse than the Dead-Cores must've gotten in, and we need to go stop it right now!"

"ArmoRed! Suit up for battle!"

"ShadBlue! Enshroud!"

"Log-in! HakkuGreen!"

"For the world's safety! ChoPink!"

Izumi stared at the rest of the Rangers, first incredulously, before noticing how they looked. All of them looked ready to go defend the HQ, ready to give their lives, just to catch the bad-guy in the end. Even Hikari and Daisuke looked... Heroic, as they got into transformation positions, preparing to go and fight. Yes, it was this that made her join the Digital Police in the first place; this sense of strength and valor. There would be no reason to complain now, she thought as she readied her own transformer, for that wouldn't be brave of her to whine.

"... Mother Earth, give me strength! ElePurple!"

--

Damn alarms. Irritating noise, that made her ears ache something awful. No other justified purpose for them in the building... No Rangers were here, this late at night. Not to mention the closest home for any of the Tokyo-District Rangers was somewhere closer to Roppongi than Shinjuku, so all that remained to defend the base were a couple of lower-strength perfects. Perhaps even an extremely weak Ultimate and that was just being kind. By the time anyone worthy of an actual fight got there, she'd be long gone... And, hopefully, so would be their little base.

That's when Arukenimon heard the sharp bang from the door. She turned, only to see five... Well, what appeared to be five mad teens in neon-shaded spandex suits, rolling from the doorway, to right in front of her. Each one gave a little shout of effort, as they gave an entrance flip, going into some sort of arrangement. Was there Rangers still in the building? If that was the case, where were the rest of their teams? None of the suits or helms matched, all with wild differences between each other.

"For the crime of breaking and entering, and making the damn alarm go off!" The Red Ranger in the center shouted. He pointed at her, the burn marks on his gloves evident all over his fingers and palms, "You're under arrest, so you'd better give up now, lady!"

"Even the world of darkness finds you intolerable." The Blue (or was it Black? The suit was so dark, she could barely tell) Ranger said, his voice nary a whisper. Removing both swords from his side, he let them drag on the, clanging a little on the cold tiled ground. "If you do not surrender to the shadows now, then it's off to hell you go."

"I know martial arts, I will kill you if need be, and I know how to use computers effectively." The Green Ranger said, making a quick roundhouse kick to illustrate his point. His suit looked less fear-inspiring than it did look... Really shiny. Really, goddamn shiny. "Tell us your reasons, or I'll be forced to use my skills on you. Ph34r."

"Even now, I know you have no guilt in your heart for what you've done." The Pink Ranger said, making a traditionally Christian hand movement, a Hail Mary. The only Ranger in a skirt, she stood daintily as she posed, making a hand pose Arukenimon once saw in some Magical Pretty Girl show. "Maybe the gods have mercy on you, at your judgment."

"Look at the weather, as you face us now!" The last one, a Ranger in a suit that looked like such a light purple it was white. Her suit had a more masculine cut than the other girl, so she gave a few quick movements into the air. "Even Mother Nature finds you to be disgusting!"

With that last speech, the five of them reverted into attack position, an action that would've been so much more impressive had they actually matched up once they did as such. Rather, it just looked clumsy now.

"ArmoRed!" The Red Ranger said, before giving it a moment and adding, "Wait! I mean DejiRed!"

"Oh right..." The Blue Ranger came out of his stance, as he shifted to a more comfortable position. "That means I'm DejiBlue, right?"

The Green Ranger shook his head, before saying "Right now, I'm HakkuGreen. That's really good enough."

"Should we even use our old names now?" The Pink Ranger asked, as she looked slightly confused. "I know we're in our old suits, but we're still DejiRanger, right?"

"I'm ElePurple!" The nearly-White Ranger proclaimed. Then, she said "No, I'm DejiWhite! No, DejiPurple! No- Oh, darn, this is confusing!" She held her head in hands, shaking it softly. "I don't know who I am!"

"What on earth are you children doing?" Arukenimon asked, totally befuddled. Were these really Rangers, or did some otaku get loose into the building? Either way, they had to be seriously joking. And did they say something about... DejiRanger? The supposed force of elites capable of bringing, gods forbid, the Reaper Five down? Her tinted lips cracked into a slight smile. "So, you're the Elite Forces..." She muttered, a guttural tone slowly slithering into her throat. "Yet none of you even match in your uniforms or your speeches..."

"Well, it's only been a few hours..." DejiRed said, rubbing the back of his helmet. "And our uniforms are all messed up right now, so we need to use our old ones- OW!" DejiGreen, or HakkuGreen as he'd said, just elbowed him hard in the chest. He rubbed his ribs, muttering "You don't even want us to call you DejiGreen in the first place."

"Even if that's the case, you don't go telling the villain all the problems we're currently having." HakkuGreen said. Had he not been wearing a helmet, it would be obvious that he glared at DejiRed.

She glanced at the computer. Ninety-eight percent of the coding information was saved into disk. Enough time for a quick round in combat. Arukenimon stood up, keeping her eyes on the DejiRanger team as she did. Perhaps this was all some sort of clever ruse, to catch her off her guard. The DejiRanger team could not be this inept, not even getting a coherent speech with each other. "So, the best and the brightest of the Digital Police force..."

All five Rangers realized why she stood up; going into the most fearsome attack positions they could muster. Daisuke reached for his guns before noticing all of the people around her. Not the best idea; these people couldn't run off, if they needed too. He'd just have to stick with super-speed with the creepy chick. Izumi just lagged back a little from the scene, as she took out her bow. She needed a direct shot this time, no misses.

"Evolve!" The woman shouted, as she dashed at an ungodly speed to the Rangers. Her legs contorted, twisting to points along with her waist. Her sunglasses fell over her head, exposing bug-eyes, wide and lacking of any true sanity. Her face gnarled from a pretty pert set of lips to a twisted vulgar mouth, fangs hanging out from the sides. Immediately, she slammed into DejiBlue, sending the ranger flying into the wall.

DejiRed dashed over to her, his suit a red and black blur as he ran. At first, Arukenimon seemed dazed at the sheer speed that he ran, having a hard time either pegging him with a hand or a pointed leg. This would be the best strategy to hit her with, DejiRed though as he kicked and punched at her torso wildly. At this speed, he would definitely not be blocked or tossed aside like DejiBlue. At least, that's what he thought until he realized he hadn't smacked her once. With each kick, with each punch, with each blow, the spider-woman merely shifted her body a little. All he hit, looking at his fists a bit, was hair. Little strings of silver remained on his fists.

"Will you..." He said, his breathes heavily haggard, "Hold... Still... For one minute!" DejiRed punched directly at her face, only for his fist to be caught in her hand. Arukenimon squeezed tightly, before swinging the boy, arm and all, into the ground. He struggled to get back up, but his body felt faint. He collapsed no sooner than he stood up.

She towered menacingly over the last three Rangers, a rasping gurgle emitting from her throat as she lurched to them. DejiPink and DejiGreen looked to each other than to DejiWhite, both nodding at each other. "Listen, DejiWhite, we're going to melee onto her at the moment," said DejiGreen.

"All of us?" DejiWhite asked confusedly, as she held her bow pointed to the ground, the arrow only partly strung into the right place. DejiPink shook her head.

"Just me and DejiGreen. Listen, you stay back, and shoot her with an arrow." DejiWhite was completely horrified with the comment, but before she could argue, DejiPink added "Look, I know you're not very good with it... But DejiGreen's rocket-launcher arm is too dangerous for an area with so many civilians and my knuckles are a close-range weapon. You're the best shot we have!"

"I am?!" DejiWhite said. "Well, if that's the case I'll have to do it..." Yes, as if she didn't have enough pressure to not screw up, now she was the only shot the team's best shot. She felt like she was going to... Well, she couldn't screw up now! She was, after all, one of the good guys! If anything, all of this pressure would make the victory a bit more fulfilling! Under her helmet, she grinned a bit cockily. "You guys can count on me!'

"Thank you, DejiWhite!" DejiPink said, before she turned right back to Arukenimon and jumping at her, trying to aim a crescent kick for her head. DejiGreen nodded with that and slide-kicked one of her pointed legs, or at least attempting to. Arukenimon stepped up, and then slammed the same pointed foot into DejiGreen's stomach harshly. She grabbed DejiPink leg with her left hand, then lifted the poor girl into the. As she swung the pink Ranger wildly, Arukenimon kicked DejiGreen's chest, as he tired to regain his breathe. The boy went flying, slamming into a nearby computer desk.

DejiPink struggled to keep her mind at ease, trying to focus on her mind's vast powers. However, the wild and chaotic swinging only worked to make her dizzy. Arukenimon held the girl, upside down, to her face, and asked "Had enough?" DejiPink only whimpered some sort of reply, before Arukenimon smashed her onto the floor, the force knocking the girl out.

As she stood back up, an arrow whizzed right by Arukenimon's head, slicing a little bit of her hair. She looked up, to see DejiWhite, as the Ranger readied a new arrow into the holster, while muttering several words in what sounded like Italian to herself. Arukenimon stood up, glaring at the girl, and holding up some of the diced off hair. "Oh, really, do you have any hope of getting it right? You're not even holding your bow correctly."

She's just trying to psyche me out, Izumi thought. Her hands quivered, slipping from the quiver of the arrow repeatedly. The tip barely stayed in place for a second, as she struggled to keep the bow in her grasp. I need to do this right... Hikari said everyone's counting on me... I can't fail... She let go of the arrow, hoping it would fly true. Indeed, it flew strong, flying straight for Arukenimon's face. Izumi gave a mental cheer, until the arrow went flying to the side.

Arukenimon smacked the arrow out of her sight, with barely any effort. She glared at DejiWhite, before holding up her hair, then shrieking "Spirit needle!" The hairs all shifted, from a soft and limp form to that of steel points. The arrows went all directions, piercing the five rangers in shoulders, joints, and torsos. DejiWhite fell to the ground, holding her side as she whimpered in pain.

Arukenimon's form twisted, back to the lithe female figure from before. She pushed a tuff of hair from her face, frowning at the shortened cut the front section now had, before walking back to the computer. The download just finished, and a red CD popped from the computer's hard drive. "Pathetic." She said, as she walked by the fallen Rangers, shooting each of them a glance. Most were unconscious, except for DejiWhite, who could barely even stand she was in so much pain.

"Mio lato..." she said, struggling to get up from her knees. Arukenimon cleared her throat, causing the girl to look up at her. Oh man, was she ever screwed... She couldn't even stand up, much less fight. "Merda..." DejiWhite whimpered, as she put her arms in front of her, trying to simulate a stance.

Arukenimon merely scoffed, as she watched the Ranger. "Is this the best the Rangers can do?" She said, glaring at each of them, especially at DejiWhite. "I didn't even break a sweat in that poor excuse of a fight... Either the standards for this place have gone down since the last time I was here, or this is some sort of joke. Either way, I'm not amused..." She reached down, her hand reverting back into the clawed grip from before, with all intents on snapping DejiWhite's neck. Then, it stopped, right in front of the girl's face.

"No..." Arukenimon said, as she shook her head. "No, it's not worth the effort to kill you. You'll probably die in the next few minutes anyway, and if not then, you'll die in combat against me." As her hand reverted back to a human make, she left the room, but not before adding. "Don't expect this to be done yet..."

--

Police, not the Digital Police variety, but the SAT teams, scoured the building, seeking out hostile life. Medics, from several ambulances, helped dragged out the injured and the dead, as officers helped escorted those in shock or just terror from the scene, for questioning. A young man helped out a woman in a red dress, she holding her arm as it bleed heavily all over the already-crimson outfit.

"Miss, you know you'll need to go for questioning, right?" Officer Tawakemono asked. He steadied the young woman, who felt limp in his arms. She looked up, her white hair obscuring her face a little.

"Questioning... Yeah, sure, I think I can do that..." She said, her voice quivering a little. She muttered a few things to herself, something along the lines of "father will be most displeased..." not looking into the officer's face but just beyond him. Of course, he didn't know that; the large purple sunglasses covered her eyes. Odd that someone would insist on the glasses so late at night... Tawakemono decided to ask her about this later. Then, she started to sob a little more.

"Oh! Oh, please calm down, Miss! Miss..."

"Harigane Arumi..." She said, her voice sounding the slightest bit icy on 'Arumi'. "My father... My father..." Stopping suddenly, the woman in red sat on the stairs to the Ranger Headquarters, curling up into a little ball. "Oh god."

"What?" Tawakemono dropped to her level, kneeling down beside her. She didn't bother looking to him, instead crying into her lap. Tapping on her shoulder, he didn't expect Arumi to suddenly grab onto him, crying onto his shoulder. The young man patted her on the head, trying to calm her as best as he could. "Something happened to your father, didn't it?"

"I... I wouldn't know..." She sniffed. "I didn't see him on my way down. And I'm worried that... That psychotic spider may have gotten him..." Arumi looked to the young man, his eyes meeting her sunglasses. "Do you know if they might've seen him?"

"I... I haven't seen him." The young man said, sadly. But wait! He could go inside and look for the poor young woman's father. She could get to an ambulance, on her own, and he'll go look for her father. Tawakemono looked at Arumi, the strife etched onto her face. He couldn't just leave her like this, worried about her father... "But, tell you what, I'll go and look for him right now! You just head over the ambulances yourself, and get stitched up, and I'll go look for your pop! How will that work?"

She looked into his face, her expression lightening. "You-You will?" Arumi stuttered. Giving a small smile, she added. "It's very kind of you..."

"Nonsense! It's just part of my job, ma'am!" He said, getting up to his feet. "You're father... What am I looking for?"

"His name is Harigane Yukio." She said. With that, the officer nodded, and headed back to the base, while shouting out the older man's name Arumi smiled sadly, as she watched the young man leave.

After a moment, the expression shifted. Instead of pain, misery and hope, her expression became unreadable, as she stood up, walking away. She didn't walk to the ambulances parked by the side, nor did she head back to the building to wait for the officer. Rather, she veered left, heading to a mostly-desolate parking lot. Barely anyone noticed, as she left the area; people had to deal with injured charges and the dead, before worrying about a strange woman with some scratches on her arm.

Over in the empty lot, two men waited for her silently. The three barely exchanged words, as they walked by, only nodding to each other. They walked past a broken Jaguar, the windshield broken to bits, not noticing a low-grade hum coming from the trunk of the car. Within moments, the trio disappeared, not to be seen by anyone else that night. Even then, the trio would be the last thing on anyone's mind, in a moment.

The Jaguar started to shift and bounce, like a car in a music video. The back bucked and bounced, as a scratching noise grew from the back. Several cops, including young Officer Tawakemono, rushed over to the scene, as the noises grew worse.

The commotion grew worse, as the trunk began to bubble and pop. At first, it looked like it could be a bomb or some form of explosive device. Then, a handprint slammed itself into the metal. Some cops stood back, and decided to hold their ground; others took out their guns, ready to fire whenever the beast in the car, whatever it was, decided to pop out.

It wouldn't play out like that. Instead, the car began to bloat, the metal stretching like a piece of aluminum foil. The figure emerging from the car, looking vaguely dragonic in shape and form, bent the steel to itself, enveloping its body in the remains like a blanket. The figure looked generic at first, but a face and body emerged from the car as it changed and morphed, looking ever so slightly like a Greymon, only with a metallic claw. Shredding through the steel, a MetalGreymon roared to the sky, still increasing in size. This was no ordinary MetalGreymon though; his body was black, the formerly blue lines of the average MetalGreymon a bright yellow on him. The metal parts all looked much more defined, especially his artificial eyes, which glowed blood-red

Officers shot at the beast, some erratically and fearful, some controlled and accurate. Either way, the bullets had little effect. He snorted, as the guns continued to fire, his girth speeding along. It was no time at all before he outgrew the car, the small bits of steel flattening or punctured by his feet. With only one swing of a leg, BlackMetalGreymon kicked the majority of the cops aside, most going flying and crashing onto the ground. Soon, the masses of ambulance and others could see him easily, as he finally stopped growing, reaching the same height as the Digital Police Headquarters.

"Good baby..." Arukenimon said, as she watched her precious experiment grow. At the safety of a nearby alleyway, Reaper Five stood to view the carnage. Oikawa seemed content to stare into space, as he held the CD containing the codes needed to activate a gate to the Dark Ocean. He could care less what would happen now, as long as they got back... Seemed only fair to make Arukenimon happy, and let her watch her dear pet destroy the Rangers.

Mummymon just watched with a great interest, his eyes lit up and wide. Such amazing chaos that she could create... With only a few hours, she created a god in her lab. Oh, if only he could watch each time she sent out one of these beasts, to see her as joyous as she was now... Then, he'd be a very happy mummy. He opted not to say anything; no words could express what he wanted to say to her, at this time. And, even if they did, it would still be rude to ruin her happy mood, like hearing him talk usually did for her.

BlackMetalGreymon glared at the Ranger headquarters, at the pristine white cleanness of the building. It stared for a long while, before lunging, swinging a claw right for the building.

--

A pair of people ran down the halls, racing as fast as normal people could ever hope to achieve. The pair, a brunette young man and a young woman with blonde pigtails dashed through the emptied building, both going the same route. They were on a desperate search and hunt, struggling to find people. Or in the case of the woman, a person and a monster. At a corner, they both stopped, to catch a breath.

"Listen..." The woman said, as she panted harshly. "We... We need to split up. You need to find... Find the Rangers... God, I knew I shouldn't have run up five bloody flights of stairs..."

"You're telling me..." Ryo replied, as he gasped harshly. He bent over, if only to allow the dizzying effects of not breathing quite right for a few minutes fade. "Look, as soon as you find Dobermon and your grandfather, then just get to the bottom level, any possible way you can." The young woman nodded, before starting a breakneck run again, taking a few moments to jog before dashing off. Ryo gasped and gagged a little, as he watched her run. "Well... You could've taken a breather first."

"It wouldn't be the best idea to stay in one place too long at the moment... There could be more Dead-Cores then the ones detained downstairs. And, if not, there's always a Spider-Monster running around." DejiPink said, as she limped over to the elder boy. He nearly jumped, from the sight of the five DejiRanger, beaten and torn up, as they hobbled to him.

"Rangers!" His eyes light up, at the sight of the team. "You need to stop sneaking up on me like that!" Ryo shouted, as they over to him, bloody seeping from tears in the spandex. "What the hell happened to you guys?!" He said, as he helped support DejiPink up.

"What do you think happened? We got whipped like schoolgirls in a bad porno, that's what happened." DejiGreen said. "There was some sort of... Spider-woman up in there, and she all but killed us."

"..." DejiWhite was oddly silent, as she stood there. Ever since the fight, she'd barely said anything, just choosing to walk behind her teammates instead. It's not as if they said anything about the loss to her... But DejiPink said they were counting on her. And what did she do? Screw up with the arrows yet again. At times, she hated the weapon more than anything else... But she wasn't proficient with anything else, except the pin-wheel, and they didn't have that one as a standard Ranger weapon. Maybe now she was elite, she could get one...

She, an elite; boy, that's a cruel joke. A hand rested on her shoulder. Looking over, she saw DejiBlue. He seemed to be trying to say something to her, stumbling a little on what was in his mind. Still, DejiBlue wasn't too comfortable with talking to other members of the team yet, but at least he still tried. "Well... You need to... How do I say...? You know, I can..." Then, he just looked away. "I... I don't know what to say."

"Oh?" DejiWhite said. Adopting a more cheerful tone of voice, she said "Oh, don't worry about me! I just need to practice with the arrows more, and then I should be alright!"

"You sure you're not upset?" He asked. At the cheerful girl's nod, he eased up a little. "Well, if anything else happens..." I can offer you help, he thought. He couldn't bring himself to say it thought... What if, in helping her, he lost it and kill- He looked to the ground, trying to dispel horrible thoughts from his mind. "If anything happens..."

"... They won, you know." DejiGreen muttered. "It did nothing the fact we went up there. Now, all it did was made us look foolish."

"They won nothing!" DejiRed snapped. "So, we just got a little beat up! There will be other battles!"

"... How can you expect to win, though? None of us even know each other..." DejiPink said, softly. All she knew was just a little bit about DejiRed's past in NYC and that DejiBlue was very shy. "We can't work as a team when we've virtual strangers."

"Well, we'll find a way to win!" DejiRed shouted. "Even if it meant we spend all night talking about our grand-fathers and things that happened when we were little kids, we'll figure out a way to work together, and we will not loose again!"

"Even if that's the case we still lost here though." DejiGreen said sadly. DejiRed fumed at him and the down DejiPink. Ryo said nothing, but held DejiPink up. After tonight, he'd need to train them double-time... If Rei was telling the truth, then this would just be the beginning. Then the klaxons began to blare again, as the building began to shake horribly. "The hell!?"

"And an earthquake too?! What a shitty day this is!" DejiRed shouted, as he grabbed onto a nearby wall. The hallway shook violently, sending picture-frames and a nearby water-cooler to the floor. The group held fast to anything bolted down, until the rumbling ceased for a moment. A door fell to the side, after the quake, exposing a window.

"I don't think... It's an Earthquake, Red..." DejiPink said, her voice no louder than a terrified whisper. An electronic eye peeked into the room, scanning everything in there. Then, the eye left the window, revealing more of a dinosaur-like skull as it walked by. "That's a... That's a..."

"We need the Zords, Ryo!" DejiRed shouted, the rest of the group nodding in agreement, a bit of a surprise to Ryo. "If we stand any chance of beating that thing, it'll have to be in large-robot-format!"

"But... But the Zords aren't ready!" Ryo stuttered, as he waved his hands a bit. This argument would've had a lot more substance, had his cell phone decided that would be the perfect time to start playing "Ready Steady Go". He picked up the beeping phone, to hear Rei. "... What? You mean they... Didn't you say they'd be ready next week? ... I see. Only that much..."

"Hey, is this about the Zords? This is about them, isn't it?" DejiRed asked. Ryo waved a hand over the ranger's face, in some attempt to silence him, as he turned to a corner. One nod, then two; after saying some informal goodbye, he hung up the phone. "Well, what did she say?"

"DejiZord Perfect is ready for action... Hope you're all ready for combat." Ryo sounded absolutely stupefied, as he spoke, completely disturbed. Hadn't Rei said that they weren't expecting a Reaper Five attack until a few weeks; and if that was the case, then why the rush to finish the Zords?

--

The Digital Police Headquarters shook with each attack, each blown done to it, as BlackMetalGreymon slashed and clawed at the building in an insane rage. No... Insane rage was not a fitting description for his state of mind. To be enraged would mean that you could feel emotions, that you could have different states between rage and calm. BlackMetalGreymon had nothing of the sort. He didn't even feel the flashing flaming-ice feeling of angry, as he torn into the building, scorching the walls into a deep black. All he felt was loyalty.

A deep sense of loyalty, telling him this was what he must do... Mustn't make mother angry or sad, even if he didn't know what that meant. All it meant, to him, was he had a job to do. Roaring fantastically, he stepped back a few paces.

No one on the street thought he was abandoning the battle; not for a second. People ran in a blind panic in the roads, trying to get out of the way of the deranged Wild One, or what they thought was a Wild One anyway. He didn't show any reaction to the people as they ran from him, screaming and terrified from him. No sense of superiority, no guilt, nothing seemed to come to him, watching humans run by. If anything, they seemed a little loud.

Looking to his goal, the falsehood Digimon scrapped his feet on the ground, preparing to head butt the building. That would finish his goals, quickly, and make mother extremely happy... Giving one last growl, he charged, lowering his head for direct impact, an impact that never came. Instead, he stopped short of his goal, as a robotic figure wrapped arms around his neck, entrapping him into a headlock.

The robot picked up the beast, by grabbing the tail with one hand, while the other hand kept wrapped around his head. With a tremendous toss, BlackMetalGreymon went flying to the ground, as the robot slammed it, face first. The ground shook and cracked, as it crashed, the metallic structure of BlackMetalGreymon scrapping horrendously on the stony concrete below.

For a few moments, the ground grew quiet, as people stopped running and turned to see the robot that just performed the takedown. The robot, a five-colored figure, looked so odd that it could not be a natural Digimon or even man-made... No, with its appearance, an oddly bulky monster, with a pinwheel as its strange weapon of choice, there was only one thing it could be.

"Oh, thank god, they've finally arrived!" One woman called out from the crowd, finally elated. "It's a Zord! The Rangers have finally come to save us!" Slowly, the crowd went from scared out of their wits to a cheering section for the Rangers. The robot, a Zord as the woman called it, looked to the crowd, confusedly. Usually, the robots would wave or, in case of arrogant Digimon at the controls, would actually pose and try to keep the publics eye. However, this Zord reacted strangely; instead of showing signs of gratitude, the robot stared at the audience.

It stared so deeply, that it never expected a black and yellow blur to tackle it, sending the robot off of its feet. Only with a little bit of luck, did the Zord manage not to hit the building on its fall, instead just falling on onto its rear, in a most undignified way. BlackMetalGreymon shrieked into the fallen Zord's face, grabbing the top of the helm as it did so.

The crowd began to shout and worry, most trying to get a better sight of the two large masses fighting, as BlackMetalGreymon grasped the Zord's head. It didn't look good for the Rangers inside the robot, especially as, due to common knowledge, everyone knew where the cockpit was; right inside the helmet, that BlackMetalGreymon was trying to crush with his bare hands.


End file.
